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violence. Early on the 27th the first of the final eruptions 
took place, others followed at short intervals, the last occurring 
at 10-52 a.m. The atmospheric concussions and the tidal 
waves, which drowned about 36,380 people, were next explained, 
and an account was given of the wonderful sunsets which 
characterised the autumn of 1883. An exquisite series of 
slides illustrated this phenomenon. 
The volcanoes of New Zealand are a more than usually 
interesting study: firstly, on account of their number; secondly, 
because they appear to have a subterranean connexion from 
Whakari Island, in the Bay of Plenty, to Tongariro, on the 
S.W. of Lake Taupo. A short sketch of the extinct and active 
voleanoes having been given, Lake Rotomahana and the Pink 
and White Terraces—so well described by Mr. Froude in 
“Oceana ’’—- were mentioned. On Thursday, June 10th, 1886, 
these were destroyed by the eruption of Mount Tarawera, which 
buried them under torrents of mud. The neighbouring settle- 
ment of Wairoa was also destroyed, and many lives lost; the 
village of Mourea was swept bodily into the lake by an 
avalanche of mud, and Te Ariki was covered by some twenty 
feet of white dust. Since this memorable day, the activity of 
the volcanoes in the Northern Island of New Zealand appears 
to have increased considerably. 
The following years were noted by continuous and in- 
creasing activity of volcanoes in all parts of the world. In 
1892, on June 7th, Guvona Awa, on Sangir Island, suddenly 
burst into eruption without any warning, desolating the Island 
and causing a loss of over three thousand lives. The autumn 
of this year was also remarkable for the most serious eruption 
of Mount Etna that has taken place for a century; and four 
years later Vesuvius began a series of eruptions which have 
not yet subsided. 
As volcanic action declined, earthquakes increased in all parts 
of the world, over one hundred having been recorded during the 
eighteen months ending December 31st, 1901. In 1902 there 
has been a general recrudescence of volcanic activity all over 
the world, from Alaska to New Zealand. ‘The principal centres 
of eruption have been in the Sandwich Islands, Central America, 
and the West Indies. In these the volcanoes of Mount Pelée, 
in Martinique, and La Souffriére, in Si. Vincent, became active, 
after a silence of fifty years in the former case, and over a 
century in the latter. The eruption of Mount Pelée took 
place on the morning of Thursday, May 8th, about ten 
minutes before eight o’clock. A blast of incandescent gas and 
fine ashes, suspended in clouds of steam, round which flashes of 
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