796 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 
been cut down for their large yam gardens. The site of a village, 
or an old village site may, however, always be known by a large 
clump of fine fruit-bearing trees, in the midst of which the village 
is situated. This is quite a distinctive feature of the Trobriands 
villages. 
NEW BRITAIN. 
In this group when I landed there in 1875 there was not a 
single white man resident there, and where the people then were 
wild, naked savages I saw great changes, but Iam not able now 
to give any detailed account of them, and I must reserve this for 
some other occasion. I was much impressed, however, with one 
instance of the 
FORMATION OF AN ISLAND. 
On one of the points of Blanche Bay, three of the best-known 
mountains in New Britain are situated. These are called the 
“ Mother and Daughters.” The ‘ Mother” is 2,000 feet high ; the 
others are a little lower, and not so regular in shape. They are 
all certainly of voleanic origin, as is also the whole of the sur- 
rounding district, which is composed entirely of decomposed 
pumice. 
In 1878, when I was resident in the group, an active volcano 
broke out about halfway up the side of the Mother. It was a 
grand and fearful sight. The column of fire, smoke, and ashes 
was, to all appearance at least, as high again as the Mother, 
thousands of tons of pumice were ejected, the sea being covered 
for miles, and presenting the appearance of a great, sandy desert 
with no water visible. The water in that large bay was boiling 
hot, even to the very farthest point of the bay, and the whole 
country was covered with ashes which killed most of the cocoanut- 
trees and all the gardens of the people. 
The bay is very deep, and is about 8 miles wide at the place 
where the island of which I am writing was upheaved. I visited 
the place a few days after the outburst, and while the volcano was 
still in furious action. The natives told me that during the first 
days large jets of steam had been observed ccming out of the bay 
in a direct line between the volcano and a village on the main- 
land called Karavia, and that a new island had been found at 
some little distance from that village. With some difficulty I got 
a crew to tuke me to it, and found an island nearly 3 miles in 
circumference and, in some parts, about 60 feet high. The island 
I found was situate on a spot which I remembered as being a 
