378 REACTION OF THE INTERIOR OF THE EARTH 



complete accordance with the experience that the coral 

 animals avoid the coasts of volcanoes which now are or 

 have recently been in a state of activity, that the Tonga 

 islands (rich in coral-reefs) of Tafoa and of the cone of 

 Kao are quite stripped of living coral. ( 516 ) 



The volcanoes of Tanna * and Ambrym * come next ; 

 the latter is to the west of Mallicollo, in the group of the 

 New Hebrides. The volcano of Tanna, which was first 

 described by Reinhold Forster, was found in full erup- 

 tion on Cook's first discovery of the island in 1774. It 

 has continued active ever since, and as its height is 

 scarcely 460 feet, it must be ranked, together with 

 the Japanese Kosima and the volcano of Mendana 

 mentioned below, as belonging to the class of the least 

 elevated of fire-emitting mountains. On Mallicollo is 

 much pumice. 



Mathews Rock* is a small island-rock about 1180 

 feet high, which sends forth smoke, and which D'Urville 

 observed in eruption in January 1828. It is to the 

 east of the south point of New Caledonia. 



The volcano of Tinakoro *, in the Vanikoro or Santa 

 Cruz group. 



In the same archipelago of Santa Cruz, fully 80 geo- 

 graphical miles N.N.W. of Tinakoro, there rises from 

 the sea a small volcano * only about 200 feet in height 

 (under 200 French or 213 English feet), which was first 

 seen by Mendana in 1595. It is in 10 23' S. Its fiery 

 eruptions have sometimes been periodical, occurring 

 every ten minutes; and sometimes, as when seen by 

 D'Entrecasteaux's expedition, the column of vapour 

 may be said to have been itself the crater. 



In the Solomon group there is an active volcano on 



