386 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



schists and slates. It is quite possible that in the north- 

 west of the island, where earthquakes are frequent and 

 at times severe, and where there are signs of upheaval 

 over wide areas, further knowledge of the country may 

 reveal the existence of active craters. There is no lack 

 of evidences of volcanic action, both past and j)resent, in the 

 islands from the Louisiades to Humboldt Bay. Beginning 

 with the D'Entrecasteaux group, all appear to be volcanic, 

 the focus of action being now centred in Ferguson Island, 

 where, on the west coast, over an area of eight or ten 

 square miles, are numerous boiling springs, geysers of hot 

 mud and saline lakes, and thousands of fumaroles, with 

 considerable deposits of sulphur. The long chain of 

 islands from New Britain to the Schouten group, which 

 have already been alluded to, have a similar origin. 



The recent superficial deposits occupy an enormous 

 area, at all events in the British territory. The whole of 

 the coast line of the Gulf of Papua and the vast basin of 

 the Fly Paver is thus composed, and probably the area 

 south of the Charles Louis range also. Upraised coral 

 reefs are a marked feature of St. Aignan and other parts 

 of the Louisiades, of the peninsula forming the northern 

 limit of Goodenough Bay, of the Stirling range, where 

 they are found at a height of 2000 feet or more, and of 

 many parts of the German tei'ritory, especially in the 

 neighbourhood of Finschhafen. At Dorei Bay they are 

 well marked. In most of the islands and localities 

 examined by JMr. A. G. Maitland of the Queensland 

 Geological Survey, these elevated reef -masses, when 

 viewed from a distance, present the appearance of 

 vertical walls and level terraces, stretching often for con- 

 siderable distances, and the faces of these cliffs are some- 

 times covered with vegetation to such an extent as to 

 present the appearance of a huge wall of foliage. The 



