48 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



" Sunday Island. 



" Ship News. — The following remarkable account of one 

 of those convulsions of nature which the mind contemplates 

 with surprise and awe we receive from Captain Barnes, 

 of the ' Jefferson,' who witnessed the phenomenon. We have 

 stated, in reporting the ' Jefferson's ' return to this port in the 

 Gazette of the 3rd instant, that she had gone from hence 

 in June, 1813. Much of the intervening time has been occu- 

 pied about the coasts of New Zealand, on the north side of 

 which is Sunday Island (one of Curtis's) [sic] , and the subject 

 of the present account, lying in 29° 12' S. lat. and 178° W. 

 long. 



" From the 24th to the 27th Captain Barnes was employed- 

 in wooding there, and while the boats were on shore the 

 vessel sailed to and fro within a spacious bay on the west side 

 of this island, formed as a crescent, the heads of which were 

 about six miles asunder. Actuated by a curiosity which must 

 be always serviceable to navigation — that of discovering the 

 surroundings of every part which vessels frequent — Captain 

 Barnes employed himself attentively in the business of sound- 

 ing between these heads, and in no part found less than 

 45 fathoms. Further in the depth gradually diminished, and, 

 after penetrating till within a short distance of the inner 

 shore, he there found 16 fathoms. Leaving the island on 

 the 27th of February, it was afterwards frequently in sight 

 till the 9th of March, when, at the distance of six or seven 

 leagues, a thick cloud of a dark smoky appearance was ob- 

 served above it the whole day, and shortly after midnight 

 a flame burst forth, which rose to an excessive height, and 

 filled the atmosphere with a strong, fetid, and an almost suffo- 

 cating vapour, which was felt on board, though then at a dis- 

 tance of about seven leagues. Captain Barnes returned to 

 the island in two months, for the purpose of wooding, as 

 before, and found the appearance of the place entirely altered, 

 and that an island occupied the spot where so short a time 

 before he had found 45 fathoms of water. It is about three 

 miles in circuit, kidney-shaped, its outer edge nearly forming 

 a line with the heads or opposite points of the entrance of the 

 former bay, which lays north and south, has a small bay 

 of its own fronting the ocean, and is covered with a coarse 

 grit. On the near approach of the ship's boats the water 

 became very warm, and at length intensely hot. It was still 

 smoking, and was then evidently an unqueuched mass. Its 

 position is not mid-channel, but extends considerably more 

 towards the north shore than the south. A passage through 

 the opening of the north side would be impracticable, owing 

 to the numerous rocks which are scattered through it ; but 



