512 Transactions. -^Geology . 



of 1886 the volcano of Kilauea, at the Sandwich Islands, was 

 extremely quiescent. 



I fancy, also, that Professor Milne's seismometers register 

 earth-movements to a distance of three thousand miles, and 

 that through an arc of the globe ; and it has even been stated 

 that a late great earthquake in Japan was felt at the Isle of 

 Wight, in England. 



The object of this present paper is only to collect and 

 supply the detailed information concerning the volcanoes of 

 the Pacific, which I scarcely think other writers could have 

 had the opportunity of observing. 



It will be found, I think, that usually an outburst at one 

 place affects some other place perhaps three or four hundred 

 or even a thousand miles away, and sometimes even at a greater 

 distance. 



x\ late issue of the Ra,ngitikei Advocate says: " It would 

 appear from the conformation of the country around Euapehu 

 that the district for a considerable distance has been subjected 

 to a periodical covering. The surveyors who have had occa- 

 sion to dig trenches have found 1ft. of soil 3 ft. below the 

 present surface, after having gone through various thicknesses 

 of scoria and pumice, which makes it very probable that Eua- 

 pehu has a periodical burst-up." Such periodical outbursts 

 may imply internal pressure accumulating from a great dis- 

 tance. 



The shock of the great earthquake that destroyed the City 

 of Lisbon (1st November, 1755) pervaded an area of 700,000 

 miles, or the twelfth part of the circumference of the globe. 

 " It was felt in the Alps, on the coast of Sweden, into the 

 Antilles, Antigua, Barbadoes, and Martinique ; in the great 

 Canadian lakes, in Thuringia, in the flat country of Northern 

 Germany, and in the small inland lakes on the shores of the 

 Baltic. Eemote springs were interrupted in their flow, and 

 the hot springs of Toplitz dried up and returned, inundating 

 everything around, and having their waters coloured with iron 

 ochre. A portion of the earth's surface four times greater 

 than that of Europe was simultaneously shaken." 



I wish, therefore, to call the attention of members to 

 volcanic phenomena in the Pacific, in order that w^e may 

 better understand what is occurring here in New Zealand. 



The longitude of the Tongan group lies between 172° and 

 175° W. At Nukualofa I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. 

 C. D. Whitcombe, the courteous Foreign Secretary of the 

 little kingdom, who informed me that he had just returned 

 from investigating the remarkable phenomena at Falcon 

 Island. This was the island which a few years previously 

 had been thrown up in a night, where formerly a reef only 

 — named the Falcon Eeef, after H.M.S. " Falcon " — existed. 



