Smith. — Notes on the Kmnadec Group. 343 



of solfataras, fumaroles, boiling mud holes, and Leaps of sul- 

 phurous mud. A strong stream of very hot water runs out of 

 the crater into the cove, the salt waters of which are warmed by 

 it for some distance from the shore. There is a considerable 

 amount of activity displayed by the numerous fumaroles, the 

 steam rising, perhaps, a hundred feet from some of them, with 

 the usual accompaniment of noise so common in the Rotorua 

 District. Many of the boiling mud-holes are of considerable 

 size, and their contents are seething and twirling about, just as 

 we see those at Tikitere, at Rotorua, and other places in that 

 district. Our visit to the crater was so very brief that I was 

 unable to procure any rock specimens, all our attention having 

 been given to exploring the crater, and viewing the various 

 fumaroles. We had intended to make a complete examination 

 of the island on the following morning, but bad weather coming 

 on we were obliged to leave without doing so. I regret this the 

 more, as I believe the rocks are not formed of the same andesite 

 common to Sunday and Macaulay Islands ; they have more the 

 appearance of trachytic rocks from a distance. As we passed 

 round the island, steam was observed to be escaping from several 

 places in small quantities from the outside cliffs. Curtis Island 

 is a mere crater rim, or chimney top, standing up above the sea- 

 level, and on which scarcely any vegetation is to be seen. It 

 has somewhat the same features as White Island, in the Bay of 

 Plenty, but is on a smaller scale. 



The last island of the group is L'Esperance, or French, or 

 Brind, Rock. It is situated 52 miles southerly from Curtis 

 Islands, and is — as its name suggests — a mere rock standing in 

 the solitary waste of waters. It is, like the others, of igneous 

 origin, but as we were unable to land I cannot say what the 

 rocks are composed of. The height is about 230 feet, and length 

 280 yards. A somewhat remarkable feature in it is a crater- 

 like or cavernous hollow on the eastern side. The rocks of 

 which it is composed look like the augite-andesite lavas of 

 Sunday Island ; but there are two distinct kinds, the second 

 being a reddish scoriaceous one, which appears as if it had been 

 ejected from the crater-like hollow, and had subsequently become 

 consolidated and bound together by some cementing matter. 

 There is a little vegetation on the rock, apparently the ice-plant 

 common on the larger islands. 



It will thus be seen, from the imperfect description I have 

 given of the group, that nothing but igneous rocks are met with, 

 and that these (with one exception) belong to the basic, or, 

 rather, the transition from the acidic to the basic, class of 

 volcanic ejecta. The exception is a rock found on Sunday 

 Island as boulders, on the north and east sides, which tbe 

 miscroscope shows to be syenite, one of the plutonic rocks. 

 Its presence can only be explained by the supposition that it 



