Phillips. — On the Volcanoes of the Pacific. 531 



flifferent ash and lava is no reason why the whole hne should 

 not be affected by one great internal cause. It has been said 

 that an earthquake is only an incompleted volcano, but my 

 view of the matter is slightly different. Shrinkage of the 

 earth's crust (if shrinkage is still going on) would no doubt 

 tend to close up all crevices, and so keep our seas upon the 

 surface ; but, nevertheless, the argument is justifiable that 

 volcanoes are delicate steam spring-balances set in or near 

 great water regions only. 



Second Line of Activity. 



Having said all I wish now to say concerning the first line of 

 volcanic action in the Pacific, running from Mounts Erebus 

 and Terror in latitude 72° S. to the equator on both sides of 

 the 180th parallel of longitude, I will now proceed to the second 

 line of activity, running from, let us say. Hunter Island, near 

 Fiji, to the northern coast of New Guioea. Further than that 

 I do not wish to go, as the doing so would take me into the 

 volcanic phenomena of the Malay Archipelago, which requires 

 ' a separate paper, and about which I know very little. The 

 almost total absence of volcanic phenomena on the Australian 

 Continent justifies me, I think, in drawing attention to the 

 two lines I have sketched upon the map, 



A glance at a map will show what I mean — viz., the line 

 of present activity running from Fearn or Hunter Island on 

 to the New Hebrides, Banks, Santa Cruz, Solomons, New 

 Ireland, New Britain, the Louisade, Admiralty Islands, and 

 New Guinea. New Caledonia;-, with Australia, appears to be 

 outside this line, as earthquake shocks are very infrequent in 

 both places. I am, however, not well acquainted with the 

 phenomena in New Caledonia, but I hope shortly to pay a 

 visit to that group. 



This second, or north-western, line from Hunter Island 

 forms, perhaps, a portion of, and the first or northern line 

 bounding the 180th parallel of longitude evidently joins, a 

 great crevasse belt, as it were, of weakness in the earth's 

 crust, running east from Java to Central and South America, 

 although, of course, I only hazard such a statement for the 

 guidance of other observers. It is, I think, the widest stretch 

 of ocean we have. It has been observed in other parts of the 

 earth that craters in close proximity to each other do not 

 throw out the same substances, but lava and ash from dif- 

 ferent strata, showing independent local action. But I take 

 it that great thermal action when escaping would only melt 

 the different local strata through which it passes, and yet the 

 steam-force — say, by the incursion of water — be connected 

 beneath the earth's crust. Earthquake phenomena would 

 therefore have to be most carefully collected from the vast 



