BY N. DB MIKLOUIIO-MACLAY. 



965 



and vegetable matter left behind on shore after the inundation 

 produced by the high tidal wave, as has been observed on some 

 Islands of the Pacific (1). 



During my second stay at the Macl ay-Coast, in 1876 and 

 1877, I noticed only a few slight shocks of earthquake. In 

 November, 1877, however, I could distinctly hear during some 

 calm nights, a rolling noise in the distance similar to discharges of 

 heavy artillery, as by a bombardment, and a kind of trembling of 

 the ground. Leaving the coast about a fortnight later I found 

 the two Volcanoes on the Island Vulcan and Lesson Island in full 

 eruption, the noise which I heard during the night on my coast, 

 and the slight shaking of the earth were, I suppose, forerunners of 

 these eruptions. 



Arrived at Singapore in January, 1878, I heard that some 

 vulcanic disturbances occurred also on the north-east end of New 

 Britain, and in comparing dates I found that that they took place 

 about the same time as I saw the eruptions of the volcanoes on 

 Vulcan and Lesson Islands. 



On my way to the Maclay-Coast for the third time, in March, 

 1883, I saw the volcano on Lesson Island still in activity, and 

 the natives on the Maclay-Coast again complained to me about 

 earthquakes. A few weeks later, when at anchor on the north 

 coast of the Great Admiralty Island, I witnessed the eruption of 

 a volcano on the south coast of the island or on one of the small 

 islands south from the big island (2). It was during the night of 

 March 28th, and I could see a large halo as from an immense fire, 

 and two or three times heavy thunderlike rolling noises were 

 heard, followed by distinct flashes like columns of fire on the 

 horizon. 



(1). A case of great sickness and mortality on the Island Lub (or Hermit 

 Island), in 1875, after the inundation of some low islands of the group by 

 a tidal wave, has been communicated by me, in a letter about the Island 

 Lub, to the Imp. Euss. Geogr. Soc. (Investiya of the Imp. Russ. Geogr. 

 Soc. , Vol. XV.) I have heard about a similar case which happened on the 

 Island Mafia (or St. David's Island), some twenty or thirty years ago. 



(2). It might, very likely, have been the volcano on the small island 

 called by the natives Loo, and from which they obtain the obsidian for 

 their weapons and implements. 



