Phillips. — On the Volcanoes of the Pacific. 549 



sketch taken from the Neiu Zealand Graphic (Plate LI.). 

 " Vulcan Island is considered to be one of the largest vol- 

 canoes in the Pacific, if not in the whole world." The crater 

 of Kilaueanui (near Honolulu) is the largest crater we know of. 

 Vulcan Island is in latitude 4° 5' S., longitude 145° 2' E., and 

 is only about 4,000 ft. high, whereas Cotopaxi is 18,887 ft. 

 The island is clothed with vegetation. Hecla, in Iceland, 

 and Jan Meyen (70° 49' N.) are also larger. 



On the 13th March, 1888, Hatzfeldt Hai-bour was visited 

 by a seismic wave, which also visited Cape King William and 

 the coasts of New Britain. " Soon after 6 a.m. a noise like 

 firing was heard to the north and north-east, and at 6.40 a 

 wave, coming from the former direction, broke upon the shore 

 at a height of 6-|- ft. above high-water mark; it then receded 

 with such violence that half the port was dry. About 8 a.m. 

 the height of the wave was from 23 ft to 26 ft. The sea con- 

 tinued to rise and fall at intervals of three to four minutes 

 until 9 a.m., when it began gradually to subside, and by 

 6 p.m. it had resumed its normal condition." 



With respect to the sound caused by earth-movements, the 

 sound waves of the Tarawera eruption in New Zealand on the 

 10th June, 1886, travelled a radius of a hundred and fifty 

 miles — viz., beyond Auckland and Wellington — giving a whole 

 diameter of three hundred miles. I heard the sound of the 

 explosion near Wellington much like the distant muffled 

 •discharge of heavy ordnance. A booming sound usually pre- 

 cedes a sharp earth-shock. This is caused by the peculiar 

 sonorosity which sound takes when confined in the earth. 

 Drop a pm down a well, and, if it strikes the water flatly, the 

 sound wave set up will be most sharp and distinct. It cannot 

 be otherwise, seing that the sound waves, in place of spreading, 

 are confined by the circumference of the well, and can only 

 travel upwards. Now, if a pin will do this, what are we to 

 expect from an earth-wave itself grinding and rending the 

 solid earth strata? 



When the great earthquake of Cosequina, in Nicaragua, 

 took place, in 1835, the subterranean noise — the sonorous 

 waves of the earth — was heard at a distance of a thousand 

 miles ; whilst in the eruptions of the volcano on the Island 

 of St. Vincent, in 1812, at 2 a.m. a noise like the report 

 of cannon was heard, without any sensible concussion of 

 the earth, over a space of 160,000 geographical square miles. 

 There have also been heard subterranean thunderings for 

 two years without earthquakes. I think Mr. McKay told 

 us that such rumblings were heard for a year previous to 

 the late sharp earthquake on the Hanmer Plains. A friend 

 informs me that the late Mr. Cooper, native interpreter, 

 of Gladstone, Wairarapa, told him that he was sleeping 



