Baker. — New Volcano in the Friendly Islands. 43 



As the first light of morning appeared, we commenced to 

 approach near the grand scenery of Nature's last wonder, having 

 kept during the night at a distance of seven or eight miles. As 

 davlight appeared, it was soon evident that the volcano had lost 

 none of its activity, but instead of there being so many jets as on 

 the previous night, several of them at the southern end of the 

 line of jets had coalesced and formed themselves into one immense 

 submarine chasm, and the rays of the rising sun shone upon the 

 mass of vapoury matter and made it appear most beautifully 

 golden. Having a good breeze behind us, we ventured to approach 

 nearer than we would have otherwise done, and we were duly 

 rewarded for our trouble, for we found that an island had already 

 been formed some three to four miles in length, one in width, 

 and attaining a height of about 40 feet at its highest part, which 

 was around the crater on the N.W. side, and gradually shelving 

 away from this until it lost itself in the sea. The length of the island 

 was probably increased by a black mass , which we believe to be float- 

 ing pumiceous matter ; and it was also seen that a reef extended 

 from it in a N.E. direction, from the surface of which various 

 jets of steam were arising. The eruptions were now very rapid, 

 and in one instance there were no less than four huge eruptions in 

 three minutes. Although one of these large masses was ejected 

 considerably over 1,000 feet, yet it only took 16 seconds in reach- 

 ing that height ; in fact, having timed many of the eruptions, we 

 found that notwithstanding they went to a greater or less height 

 they invariably took from 12 to 16 seconds. Some of these 

 eruptions must have contained hundreds of tons of matter ; and 

 several times, just as the eruption reached its height, great 

 spouts would be seen, which appeared to be huge waterspouts, 

 and continued increasing until they were lost in the mass of 

 gaseous vapour. These eruptions continued with very little 

 interruption until 8.30 a.m., when to the surprise of everyone 

 they suddenly ceased — and it is worthy of note that up to this 

 moment there had been a constant column of smoke, &c, dis- 

 charged from the volcano — and the strong wind, carrying away 

 all the clouds of steam and gaseous matter, presented to our 

 view the whole of the land, with a distinct crater formed on the 

 S.E. end of the same, the back part of which was .considerably 

 higher than that at the water edge, which appeared to be only a 

 foot or two. Dr. Buckland and others were of opinion that this 

 was the exact moment when it emerged from being a submarine 

 volcano to that of an ordinary volcano. As we were not more 

 than one mile from it, we had a splendid and magnificent view, 

 and we were led to judge that the crater from the size of the base 

 of the column was at least two miles in circumference. Our atten- 

 tion was drawn to a white spot which appeared on the western 

 slope of the crater, which, after careful examination with our 

 glasses, we concluded was a bird which had tried to fly across 



