Phillips. — On the Volcanoes of the Pacific. 543 



2,800 ft., and 1,800 ft., formed by gradual volcanic action, and 

 perliaps upheaval. 



The Island of Lopevi, about three miles east of Paama, also 

 contains an active volcano, occasionally throwing out burning 

 ashes. It is a perfect cone, rising some 5,000 ft. out of the 

 sea. 



Lepers Island, or Omla, was so named probably in conse- 

 quence of the prevalent skin-disease being mistaken for leprosy. 

 It is about seventeen miles long, north-east and south-west. 

 Its magnificent mountain, rising to a height of 4,000 ft., re- 

 sembles a whale's back in outline, and from the sea assumes a 

 most imposing appearance. On its summit is a small lake, 

 from the centre of which rises a small crater that often emits 

 smoke. 



Port Sandwich, on Mallicollo Island, is said to be the only 

 harbour in this group where a moderate-sized vessel could ride 

 out a hurricane in safety. At Pentecost Island, and at numer- 

 ous islands in the Pacific, beds of the streams often change 

 suddenly and most remarkably after heavy rains. In 1873 I 

 pulled ray boat through living cocoanut-trees standing fairly 

 deep in the water up Nandi Eiver, in Fiji. That stream had 

 just previously changed its bed. In Tonga, of course, there 

 are no rivers or streams. I suppose the loose soil in all vol- 

 canic islands accounts for this sudden alteration. 



Near Cape Cumberland, forming the north point of the 

 great Island of Espiritu Santo — sixty-four miles long and 

 thirty-four broad — "are to be seen the ruins of buildings of 

 considerable size, pillars of regular shape and fragments of 

 masonry scattered over a plain of about three miles in extent ; 

 and at a village five miles distant from the cape are similar 

 remains, of which the natives appear profoundly ignorant." I 

 mention these ruins as they may be useful in determining land- 

 levels in this direction ; but the ruins are doubtless only 

 broken pillars of basalt. 



Cape Quiros, the opposite horn of St. Philip's Bay, runs 

 back in successive steps towards the central range of Espiritu 

 Santo. These steps may doubtless give the height of the 

 successive upheavals. 



Generally, with regard to the north-west line I am now 

 following through the Western Pacific, in the Admiralty sail- 

 ing directions are the following remarks : " A great number of 

 the islands are entirely of volcanic origin, many attaining a 

 high elevation, and at the present time they include several 

 active volcanoes. Lesson Island, o& the north-east coast of 

 New Guinea ; the volcanoes in the north-eastern portion of 

 New Britain and in the Duportail Islands ; Bagana, in 

 Bougainville Island, of the Solomon Group; Tinakula, in 

 the Santa Cruz Group ; and Tanna and Ambrym, in the 



