Phillips. — On the Volcanoes of the Pacific. 523 



west of Tongatabu, there must be a submarine volcano, as 

 smoke has been seen issuing from the sea. Then, Lette 

 Island, in latitude 18° 50' S., longitude 174° 37' W., is high and 

 volcanic, the peak being 1,790ft. high. The large crater gives 

 out a vaporous-looking smoke, and small jets issue from its 

 side. This Lette Island is the same that Mr. Whitcombe re- 

 ferred to in his letter. 



I will roughly give the longitude of those places already 

 touched upon, in order that we may see at a glance the first 

 line of volcanic action to which I desire to call attention in 

 the Pacific Ocean: Mount Egmont, 174° E. ; Tarawera, 176° 

 25' E.; Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, and Euapehu, 175° 48' B. ; 

 White Island, 177° 12' E. ; Auckland, 174° 45' E. ; The Ker- 

 madecs, 178° W. ; Pylstaart, 176° 7' W. ; Falcon Island, 

 176° 7' W. ; Lette, 174° 37' W. ; Metis Rock, 174° 49' W. ; 

 Niu-afu, 175° 40' W. : to which I may be allowed to add — 

 Chatham Islands, 176° W. ; Bounty and Antipodes Islands, 

 179° E. ; Campbell Island, 169° E. ; Auckland Island, 166° E. ; 

 Emerald Island, 163° E. ; Macquarie Island, 159° E. ; and 

 Mounts Erebus and Terror, 178° 30' E. (Other active vol- 

 canoes have just been discovered in Grahamsland, immedi- 

 ately to the south of Cape Horn. I only mention this here, 

 but they form no part of this first line of activity, although 

 they may be connected with it.) 



Sir James Hector has referred, in his lectures to us about 

 his late trip to these antarctic islands, to the gigantic na- 

 ture of some of the remains of volcanoes upon them. I do 

 not think them gigantic in comparison with the volcanoes of, 

 say, the Sandwich Group. But I might ask geologists to con- 

 sider whether the fact of so manv of the earth's volcanoes 

 being in or near deep water results from the sea- water finding 

 its way, by various faults and crevices, through the earth's 

 crust, reaching thereby the central heat, and immediately, at 

 or near the fault or crevice, being thrown out again by volcanic 

 vents even a thousand miles apart along the particular line 

 of crevices immediately affected. If igneous rock can find its 

 way up through the numerous fissures of the earth, surely 

 water can easily find its way down to the central heat. I 

 take it that the breadth of the line I am pointing out lies 

 between the 165th parallel of east longitude and the 170th 

 parallel of west longitude, or, rather, a slight diagonal or 

 curved line across these parallels — south to north. 



With respect to the numerous extinct volcanoes about 

 Auckland, I should be glad if some member of the Institute 

 residing in that locality would, before the road-contractors 

 cart away these beautiful little cones to repair the roads — an 

 act of perfect vandalism, I think, which the people of Auck- 

 land should at once put a stop to, as these little craters form 



