560 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 
New Hebrides, and recently these have been succeeded by more 
effective operations by means of the Australian fleet. Although 
the French have possessions east and west, very little has been 
done by them to extend the knowledge already acquired. Only 
within the last month or two we have received intelligence of the 
loss of a valuable vessel and cargo near the island of Rakaanga, 
by running on to a shoal not marked on any existing chart. Some 
difficulty and confusion have also arisen through various names 
being given to the same place. Hydrographers and mariners 
have attached an arbitrary nomenclature of their own, and have 
not taken any trouble to ascertain the right name, which might 
have been done by recognising the native name, which is generally 
euphonious and expressive. 
(1).— VOLCANOES. 
It is generally understood that the origin of many of the 
Pacific Islands is volcanic ; indeed, it is apparent that the coral 
islands also are constructed on a volcanic base. Darwin affirms, 
“Tt is a remarkable fact that all the many small islands lying far 
from any continent in the Pacitic, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, 
with the exception of the Seychelles and this little point of rock 
(St. Paul’s), are, I believe, composed either of coral or of erupted 
matter. The volcanic nature of these oceanic islands is evidently 
an extension of that law, and the effect of those same causes, 
whether chemical or mechanical, from which it results that a vast 
majority of the volcanoes now in action stand either near sea 
coasts or as islands in the midst of the sea.” Journal of Researches, 
chap. i. On the Sandwich Islands and the New Hebrides Group, 
in New Zealand, and some other islands, active volcanoes and 
geysers still exist. In Samoa, some thirty years ago, there still 
survived old natives who could speak of the volcano they had 
seen in operation on the large island of Savaii, in a district still 
bearing the name of Ze Ju (the burning), in the interior north- 
west of Savaii. The ground there remains barren, and is covered 
with lava, tuff, and scoriz. On the island of Upolu there are 
two remarkable volcanic mountains, very high and conical. One 
of these is in the centre of the Aana district, called Tafua, on 
the top of which is an extinct crater, very deep, and containing a 
lake, which possesses an underground aqueduct running for three 
or four miles, and debouching from a cavern about a mile from 
the shore, and thence flowing in a river to the sea, distinct from 
two streams, which are fed from the exterior watershed of the 
mountain, and reach the sea on each side of the Aana district. 
Massive rocks, volcanic tufa, and ridges of cellular lava along the 
shore, and in various tracks from the mountain side, show how 
extensive an eruption must have taken place here. In some 
parts black, rugged lava rocks form an iron-bound coast and in 
