PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 465 
in the Blanche’s survey, were raised up several feet above 
their former height, and that some other rock-patches not 
before visible near them were also recently upheaved. 
About a quarter of a mile nearer the beach we saw the large 
island which had been thrown out by the submarine volcano. 
The N.W. side seemed cool and easy of access, so we pulled 
towards it, and as soon as we got into shallow water I 
jumped out, and waded through the hot water and pumice 
to the beach, so that, with the exception of Mr. Hicks, the 
half-caste trader, I was the first white man to land on this 
island of a week’s growth. I walked from the beach, 
where we landed, over masses of pumice and hard igneous 
rocks, fissured in every direction with deep cracks, through 
many of which smoke and steam still issued very violently. 
The land sloped gradually from the N.W. beach to the 
_ summit of the island, when it terminated almost perpendi- 
cularly in a large cup-like cavity, the sides of which were 
about 70 feet in height at the summit of the island, 
gradually sloping down in a circular direction towards the 
S.E., until they nearly united on the opposite side, a 
passage of about 10 yards alone remaining, through which 
the boiling waters of the crater flowed out into the bay. 
The cavity thus formed was full of water, apparently very 
deep indeed, boiling most furiously, and emitting vast 
clouds of sulphurous steam. It was a strange sight to see 
this island bearing witness, as it did, to the great convul- 
sions of nature still going on around us. A few weeks before 
I had passed over the spot in my boat, and all was quiet 
and still, with the deep waters of the bay covering the place 
where now such powerful agents were at work all around us. 
We kept on our way round the lip of the crater until we 
came to the 10-yard channel I have mentioned, and, as 
this was full of a deep current of boiling water rushing 
through it to the bay, it effectually stopped our further 
progress. The land at this point was only a few feet 
above the sea-level, and bore the marks of very recent 
eruptions of boiling water discharged from the crater having 
flowed over it. | We were not without apprehensions that 
we might be caught in some such eruption ourselves, and 
we thought it best to quit such a dangerous locality as 
soon as possible, more especially as the sulphurous steam 
was begining to affect us. The water on the beach all 
around the island was quite hot, and in many places was 
boiling furiously. For some distance from the island the 
water was of a muddy yellow colour, which contrasted in 
a marked manner with the clear blue sea-water a little 
further out in the bay. It will give some idea of the heat 
F2 
