XXX P7i7/sical and Geognostic Svggestions, 



Asuncion, \vhicli appear to have broken forth along a line 

 that follows the meridian. In New Britannia, three conical 

 mountains were observed vomiting; streams of lava, by Tas- 

 man, Carteret, and Labillardiere. There are two volcanoes 

 in full activity on the north-east coast of New Guinea, 

 opposite Admiralty Islands, which themselves are so rich in 

 obsidian. In New Zealand, numerous regions abound in 

 basaltic and trachytic rocks. Of active volcanoes there are 

 Puhia-i-Wakati (the volcano of White Island), and the lofty 

 cone of Tongariro (5816 feet). To the absence of centres 

 of volcanic agency in New Caledonia, where sedimentary 

 formations and seams of coal have recently been discovered, 

 is ascribed the vast development of coral reefs. Dana was 

 the first to ascend the Peak of Tafua, in the Island of 

 Upolu, one of the Samoa group, not to be confounded 

 with the still active volcano of Tafoa, south of Amangura, 

 in the Tonga Archipelago. Dana found in it a crater over- 

 grown with thick forest. So, too, on the isolated Vaihu 

 of the Easter Island group, there is found a range of 

 conical mountains with craters, but inactive. 



Of the volcanic groups of the South Sea, the most violent 

 is the farthest east, adjoining the shores of the New World, 

 viz., the archipelago of the Gallipagos, which consists 

 of five considerable islands, very admirably described by 

 Darwin. There are streams of lava down to the very shore 

 of the sea, but no pumice. Some of the trachytic lavas are 

 said to abound with crystals of albite. It is important to examine 



