Phillips, — On the Volcanoes of the Pacific. 547 



clothe its sides. Some of the natives said that smoke still 

 issued from the top ; others that there was a lake at the bot- 

 tom of the crater. At night there was a strong and offensive 

 smell of sulphur. Earthquakes, accompanied with loud roar- 

 ings and uudulatory motions of the earth, are also said to be 

 common. Henderson Island is composed of volcanic ash and 

 gravel, and is of very recent formation (so the old men say), 

 having been thrown up during an earthquake. On landing 

 we found a late subsidence of the beach, and in one place 

 we saw extensive landslips, caused by earthquake. There 

 appeared to be few fringing reefs about the Solomon Islands, 

 or in this locality. The great depth of water close to the 

 islands and the scarcity of good anchorage we often noticed." 



Besides what I have already quoted from the Rev. 

 W. Fletcher's report, the Admiralty sailing directions 

 give as follows: "The island (New Britain) generally is 

 mountainous, and in the northern peninsula there is an ac- 

 tive volcano, which was last in violent eruption in February, 

 1878. At that time an island — Volcano Island — 60 ft. to 

 70 ft. in height was thrown up on the western shore of 

 Blanche Bay. This eruption was succeeded by a seismic 

 wave, which washed away a large portion of Matupi Island ; 

 and the whole of Blanche Bay and St. George Channel was 

 covered with pumice. In the north-west portion of the 

 island, south of the Gazelle Peninsula, and in the Duportail 

 Islands, off this part of the coast, there are also active 

 volcanoes." 



Blanche Bay is overlooked by the three magnificent cones 

 of the Mother and North and South Daughters, on Crater 

 Peninsula, with the rugged outlines of the smaller volcanoes 

 in the foreground. The Germans have established a coal and 

 trading station at Greet Harbour, on this peninsula, between 

 Sulphur and Bridges Point, so that I should think deposits of 

 sulphur will be found there. 



On the 13th March, 1888 — not so very long before the 

 great shock in the Amuri district, recorded by Mr. McKay in 

 volume xxi. of our Transactions, to which I have already 

 referred, and during the time the booming noises were being 

 heard in that district — Greet Harbour " was visited by a 

 seismic wave, reports of which have been received from other 

 parts of the coast of New Britain, as well as from the north- 

 east coast of New Guinea. At Matupi Island, fronting the 

 harbour, the sea receded at times from 12 ft. to 15 ft. below 

 the lowest water-mark, and then rose in several waves to the 

 same height above high-water mark ; but this phenomenon 

 was chiefly confined to the north and south-east sides of the 

 island. The waves came partly from the south and partly 

 from west-north-west. No indications of earthquake were 



