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June 5. — A special meeting was held when a lecture upon "A Trip to Mid- 

 Pacific, with life on Coral Island and visit to the active Volcano, Kilauea, " was 

 delivered by Mr. Ray Woods, a member of the British Exclipse Expedition, 

 which was despatched last year to Caroline Island, in the South Pacific. 



The Lecturer said that the British Expedition to Caroline Islands consisted 

 of another astronomer and himself. They started from Southampton on 

 February 17th, 1883. To reach their destination they had to travel some 12, 000 

 miles, the last 4,000 miles of which was performed on the American 

 man-of-war which conveyed the American Eclipse Expedition. Going 

 by way of Barbadoes and Jamaica they reached Panama, where they 

 saw the works of the company who were constructing the Panama Canal. At 

 this place they met a gentleman who was a member of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tute at Washington, and had been sent out far the purpose of studying the 

 various species of fish to to be met with in that part of the continent. They 

 were invited to join this gentleman on a fishing excursion, but declined in conse- 

 quence of having no rods. He, however, urged them nit to stay away on that 

 account, as he did not use fishing-rods but dynamite. They, therefore, joined 

 him in what turned out to be a veritable parody on the " gentle art." His 

 method was to fasten on the end of a lj:ig stick a dynamite cartridge, having 

 a lighted fuse attached, which was arranged to burn from 15 to 20 seconds. 

 Immediately a promising fish was seen the cartridge was pushed in the water, 

 and being exploded as near as possible to him, br JUght up tbe unfortunate 

 fish and any others that were near ; they were then " whipped " into the boat 

 before they could come to. The last cartridge they used brought up about 150 

 fish of different sizes and varieties.. It might be objected that this was not 

 "sport " but "slaughter." It, however, had its element of danger, as only 

 a few days before a companion of their American acquaintance, becoming ex- 

 cited in the pursuit of a large fish, held his cartridge too long and was blown 

 to pieces himself. During their voyage in the Pacific they tasted many novel 

 fruits, not the least noteworthy among them being the famous "bread fruit." 

 This, however, the lecturer stated, he regarded as a "swindle." Uncooked 

 it was most objectionable, being sour, with just sufficient of a black currant 

 taste to make it sickly ; cooked it was just eatable, and that was all. At one 

 South American port at which they called they found oysters growing on trees. 

 This extraordinary vegetation resulted from the boughs of the trees, which 

 grew upon the shore trailing in the water, and so atfjrding convenient anchor- 

 age for the adventurous molluscs. The expeditions had a most prosperous 

 voyage, and so carefully had their course been calculated that they reached 

 their destination on the very day they expected. They took up their quarters 

 on the southern island of the group. This island it only took an hour to walk 

 round and comprised an area of about one square mileof land. After describ- 

 ing the nature of the island and the incidents of their stay there, the lecturer 

 concluded his lecture by describing a visit he paid to the volcano of Kilauea, 

 The mountain itself was about 13,000 ft. high, but the crater was situate on its 

 side at an altitude of only 3,000 ft. It was about nine miles in circumference 

 and and about 800ft. deep. 



The lecture was illustrated by a series of excellent photographs taken by the 

 lecturer, two of which attracted very special attention, the one being a photo- 

 graph which had been taken in moonlight, and was the result of a two hours 

 exposure ; the other a photograph of the interior of Kilauea, the only photo- 

 graph in the world that had been taken in the interior of a volcanic crater 

 when in eruption. 



At the conclusion of the lecture a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to the 

 lecturer, upon the motion of Rev. J. C. Welherell, M. A., seconded by Mr. 

 W. J. Spratling. 



