600 
recent events, in New Zealand and Charleston respect- 
ively, will not be allowed to sink into oblivion until every 
effort has been made to gather to a focus all the light 
which they are capable of affording to us on the great 
problems of vulcanology and seismology. 
No one can have studied the reports of the late eruption 
of Tarawera in New Zealand without being impressed by 
the energy and enterprise exhibited by the local Press of 
the colony. The first mail after the outbreak brought us 
very full and detailed accounts collected by correspondents 
who, braving no inconsiderable risks, travelled over the 
scene of the catastrophe to collect information, and these 
accounts were amply illustrated by maps, sketches, and 
photographs. It must always be remembered, however, 
that the requirements of journalism and science are dif- 
ferent, and to some extent antagonistic: the former 
demands, above all things, speed ; the latter, accuracy. 
It is often only when the work of the newspaper corre- 
spondent is well-nigh forgotten that the scientific man 
finds himself in a position to deal with the vass mass of 
unsifted materials—good, bad, and indifferent—which is 
poured out before him in such wonderful profusion ; to 
him relations of events can never be “stale” if they are 
capable of being authenticated and of supplying accurate 
data for the legitimate inductions of science. 
In the case of the Tarawera eruption, as in that of 
Krakatao, it must be always a subject of regret that the 
topographical and geological surveys of the scene of the 
outbreak which were made prior to the event appear to 
have been far from perfect. Tarawera is situated in the 
midst of a barren region, in the very heart of the native 
reserve, and it was moreover most jealously guarded from 
the intrusions of white men by the superstitious Maoris, 
who used it as the place for depositing their dead. Dr. 
Hector, the accomplished Director of the New Zealand 
Geological Survey, confesses that he had never been able 
to ascend the Tarawera Range, but that from an examina- 
tion of its flanks he concluded that it was composed of 
highly acid (rhyolitic) lavas in cow/ées and dykes, and that 
large quantities of obsidian and pumice were also present. 
He was thus led to conclude that Von Hochstetter was 
right in mapping the mountain as belonging to his recent 
volcanic series. Mr. Percy Smith, the Assistant Surveyor- 
General of New Zealand, who like Dr. Hector was upon 
the spot within a few hours of the outbreak, had been 
more fortunate in obtaining some knowledge of the upper 
part of the mountain before the eruption. In the year 
1574 he ascended the mountain three times, and found its 
summit to be destitute of any trace of a crater, but to 
consist of a table-land about three miles long by half a 
mile wide, divided into two portions by a saddle, and 
covered by angular fragments of rhyolite, apparently 
shivered by the action of frost. 
There unfortunately still exists some doubt upon the 
question as to whether Tarawera has ever been in erup- 
tion during the period that New Zealand has been 
occupied by the Maoris. On the one hand, it has been 
asserted that no traditions of any previous outbreak are 
preserved among the natives; but, on the other hand, 
the names given to the parts of the mountain are said 
to indicate a knowledge on the part of those who first 
applied them of its voleanic character, and moreover the | 
extreme sacredness attaching to the locality seems 
certainly to point to the conclusion that there had been 
something remarkable in its past history. 
Certain it is, however, that, up to June ro last, Tarawera 
was not by any means regarded as a spot upon which a 
volcanic outburst might be expected to break out. But 
after a series of violent earthquakes occurring on the 
midnight preceding that day, and lasting for about three- 
quarters of an hour, a great fissure opened, beginning 
with an orifice on its northern summit and gradually 
extending south-westwards to a distance of four miles 
during the next hour anda half; distinct ejections took 
NATURE 
[ Oct. 21, 1886 
place from at least seven vents along this line of fissure. 
The highly heated condition of the materials thrown 
from these vents, which set on fire trees at a great distance 
around the mountain, certainly points to the conclusion 
that molten lava was ejected from the volcano during this 
its earliest stage of eruption. But that this lava rapidly 
became consolidated and no longer incandescent on its 
surface appears to be clearly established by the observa- 
tions of Dr. Hector, who, watching the steam cloud on 
two successive clear nights, was unable to detect any 
trace of a reflected glow upon it. After the first tre- 
mendous outburst, this eruption appears to have been 
almost entirely a hydrothermal one, and to have slowly 
but gradually declined in intensity. 
Immediately after the completion of the first fissure, 
there opened a second one throwing out enormous . 
volumes of steam. This second fissure, which eventually 
attained a length of nearly eight miles, running in a _ 
nearly north-and-south direction, was that which passed 
through the famous lake of Rotomahana. Its ejections 
seem to have been purely hydrothermal in character, and 
by the masses of ash and mud thrown out, the beautiful 
sinter terraces have been apparently converted into mud- 
volcanoes. There still remains some doubt as to whether 
the second fissure is not to be regarded as a branch of 
the first-formed one. The eruptions from a number of 
vents formed along this second fissure have also been 
gradually diminishing in intensity; but the quantity of 
steam and of more or less finely comminuted rock ejected 
from them has been enormous. 
According to the latest accounts which have reached 
us from the district, the ash, which covers the whole 
country like a great mantle of snow, effectually prevents 
the completion of the necessary geological observations 
upon the scene of the eruption. Indeed, Dr. Hector, 
after a preliminary survey, felt that no useful detailed 
work could be done until the rains have removed this 
covering of loose dust and rendered the country more 
easily accessible. Mr. Percy Smith has, however, 
ascended Tarawera, and reports the existence of a great 
fissure four miles long and five hundred feet wide, of 
which there seems to have been no trace when he 
ascended the mountain on former occasions. 
It is evident from this brief outline that a number of 
problems of the greatest interest await solution in con- 
nection with the recent display of volcanic energy in New 
Zealand. Never before, perhaps, have better opportunities 
been afforded of studying the phenomena attending the 
formation of the fissures along which volcanic ejections 
take place. It is remarkable, too, that, although the 
quantity of materials erupted was very great, there were 
few if any regular cones of the ordinary pattern built up 
along the fissures. There also remains much to be learnt 
concerning the actual nature of the materials ejected at 
different stages of the outburst, and the way in which 
they were distributed: all the materials at first thrown 
out still remain buried under the later ejectamenta. 
Upon these and many other problems of the greatest 
importance we may rely on the geologists of New Zealand, 
both officials and amateurs, for obtaining all possible 
evidence during the next few months; and when their 
researches have been completed the New Zealand erup- 
tions of 1886 can scarcely fail to prove among the most 
instructive which have ever come under the observation 
of vulcanologists. 
That the terrible catastrophe at Charleston will be 
similarly utilised by the numerous and able geologists of 
the United States we cannot for a moment doubt. The 
telegram despatched by Major Powell during the recent 
meeting of the British Association at Birmingham shows 
how fully alive he was to the importance of carrying on 
systematic observations in the district ; among his staff 
of excellent geologists constituting the United States 
Geological Survey he will experience no difficulty in 
