Phillips. — On the Volcaiioes of the Pacific. 517 



island the poor Wesleyan Tongans were deported during the 

 late religious persecutions there.) 



1 did not see Metis Rock, about thirty miles south-west of 

 Vavau. This little island is composed of almost >solid sulphur. 

 Hundreds of tons could be gathered there. The rock is 

 about 100 yards in diameter and some 20 ft. high. There is 

 no anchorage ; a vessel would have to lie off and on. The 

 rock, of course, is purely volcanic, as it is constantly seen 

 emitting small puffs of steam. Calm weather. May, June, and 

 July. Mr. A. W. Mackay, of Nukualofa, who has visited the 

 rock, kindly gave me this information. Longitude, 174° 47' W. 

 Boats and punts would have to be used for loading the 

 sulphur, but the Union Steamship Company's steamers could 

 call for quantities, say, of 50 tons at a time. 



Mr. Whitcombe has since written to me as follows : 

 " Metis Island, in the Vavau Group, was last in eruption in 

 1886. It is called by the natives generally Fonua-fooa (new 

 land,) and is about 151 ft. in height."^' There is another 

 Fonua-fooa in the Tongatabu Group — viz.. Falcon Island. 

 Metis is a rock of no great size^perhaps a mile in diameter, 

 with a boundary reef round it. Large deposits of sulphur 

 may also be found on Late Island, and also on Fonualei 

 Island. These islands are seldom visited. Deep water up to 

 reefs, and also deep water inside (with occasional inner reefs 

 and shoals), with one or more deep-water channels leading 

 from the ocean into the inner water. No fresh water on any 

 of them. With the exception of a small brook on Eua, there 

 is not a running stream on any of the islands of the Tongan 

 Group." 



I might be allowed to digress here to give a brief list of 

 other sulphur deposits in the islands besides Metis Kock, 

 seeing that there has been a scarcity of sulphur lately, owing, 

 I believe, to the Spanish- American war (1898) : (1.) Late 

 Island and Fonualei Island, in the Tongan Group. (2.) White 

 Island, on our own New Zealand coast ; but workmen do not 

 care to stay there now, owing to earthquake movement. 

 (3.) The Kermadecs : schooners can load "off and on." 

 (4.) Hunter or Fearn Island, about 180 miles south-west of 

 Kandavu. Hundreds of tons of sulphur are ther^ to be had, 

 and it is fairly pure, but landing is difficult. (5.) There are 

 sulphur islands in the New Hebrides Group, which may be 

 worked from Vila. (6.) Tanna, of course, contains a lot of 

 sulphur. Four miles back from the anchorage — Port Resolu- 

 tion, which was partly destroyed by late earthquakes, which I 

 shall speak of directly — in the direction of the active cone of 

 the volcano, there is a valley, and by prodding with a walking- 



* A different estimate this to Mr. A. W. Mackay's. 



