Transcriber's Notes When italics were used in the original book, the corresponding text has been surrounded by _underscores_. Subscripted characters have been preceded by _ and surrounded by {}. In some cases, ditto marks have been replaced by the text they represent. Some corrections have been made to the printed text. These are listed in a second transcriber’s note at the end of the text. OBSERVATIONS OF A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC BETWEEN 1896 AND 1899 [Illustration: [Image: Publisher] [Illustration: NA RARO (2,420 feet) from the south-west, a peak of acid andesite.] [Illustration: NDRANDRAMEA (1,800 feet) from the south-east, a peak of acid andesite rising about a thousand feet from its base.] [_Frontispiece._ OBSERVATIONS OF A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC BETWEEN 1896 AND 1899 BY H. B. GUPPY, M.B., F.R.S.E. VOLUME I _VANUA LEVU, FIJI_ _A description of its leading Physical and Geological characters_ London MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK; THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1903 _All rights reserved_ RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED. BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. Dedication TO THE FIJIAN PEOPLE PREFACE DURING a sojourn in the Pacific, which covered a period of rather over a year in Hawaii (1896-97), and of two years and three months in Fiji (1897-99), my attention was mainly confined to the study of plant-distribution and to the examination of the geological structure of Vanua Levu. With Hillebrand’s “Flora of Hawaii” always in my hands I roamed over the large island of Hawaii, ascending the three principal mountains of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai, and in the case of my second ascent of Mauna Loa spending twenty-three days alone on its summit. Similarly in Fiji, Seemann’s “Flora Vitiensis” was my counsellor and guide in the matter of plants. In Hawaii I was in a land of active sub-aerial volcanoes, and I paid my devotions at all the altars of “Pele,” their presiding deity. In Fiji I trod upon the surface of submarine volcanoes that emerged ages since from the ocean and still retain their coverings of sea-deposits. Both in Hawaii and Fiji I lived much among the people; and though my chief interest lay in the comparison of these two types of volcanic islands, I could not but be drawn to the kindly natives whose hospitality I so long enjoyed.