This saddle, which connects the Va-lili and the Koro-tini ranges, has probably a minimum elevation of not over 1,200 or 1,300 feet. To understand this district thoroughly a regular survey is, however, necessary. It is only at times in this densely wooded range that a view of the surrounding country is obtained; but in spite of this drawback I was able by a diligent use of watch, aneroid, and prismatic compass, to obtain a fair general notion of the surface-configuration.

The track that proceeds westward from Waisali to Narengali leads also to the villages of Na Sinu and Sealevu. About 1½ or 2 miles from Waisali, the track branches off to the westward for Narengali and to the northward for Na Sinu and Sealevu. After half an hour’s walk along this last-named path, one comes to a place where at an elevation of about 900 feet it branches off to the left for Na Sinu, crossing the lowest part of the saddle, and to the right for Sealevu across the Koro-tini Range. It may here be remarked that since the natives are gradually abandoning their mountain-villages and are settling at the coast, many of the mountain-tracks used by me will before long be overgrown and forgotten.

Observations of a Naturalist in the Pacific Between 1896 and 1899, Volume 1 — Part 134

In taking the path from Waisali to Narengali one soon enters the hilly country where large masses of basic tuffs and basic agglomerates, the last formed of blocks of a compact basaltic andesite, occur on the surface up to 700 or 750 feet above the sea. The rock just named has a specific gravity of 2·84, and since it displays rhombic pyroxene amongst its phenocrysts, it is placed in genus 1 of the hypersthene-augite andesites. Above this elevation, and as far as the top of the range, 1,800-1,900 feet above the sea, porphyritic basaltic andesites, having a specific gravity of 2·8, prevail at the surface. They display small porphyritic crystals of plagioclase, augite, and rhombic pyroxene in a groundmass composed of small felspar-lathes, prismatic pyroxene, and much smoky glass, and are referred to genus 5 of the same pyroxene andesites. It is probable, judging from one of these exposures, that such rocks are dyke-like masses: but on account of the thick soil-cap it is not possible to obtain a good view of them.

Observations of a Naturalist in the Pacific Between 1896 and 1899, Volume 1 — Part 134