Dec. 9, 1886] 



NA TURE 



127 



THE GUTHRIE MEMORIAL FUND 



A COMMITTEE has been formed, under the presi- 

 dency of Prof. Huxlev, to rr.ise a memorial fund in 

 honour of the late Prof. Guthrie, F.R.S. Prof Guthrie 

 endeared himself to a large circle of friends by his simple 

 character and wide sympathies. Unfortunately, as his 

 time was exclusively devoted to teaching and to scientific 

 research, the provision for his family is far from adequate. 

 A slender income is furnished for his widow by a policy 

 of insurance settled upon herself, but this will not enable 

 her to provide for the education and maintenance of her 

 step-children. The ages of the children dependent upon 

 her are twelve, fourteen, and seventeen years respectively, 

 and their case is the more sid because, until a late period 

 of his life. Dr. Guthrie had every reason to be satisfied 

 that they were sufficiently provided for. 



Under these circumstances it will be felt by all who 

 value his memory, as well as by those who only knew 

 him through his scientific labours, that any sum which is 

 gathered as a memorial of his life must necessarily be 

 devoted to placing his children as nearly as may be 

 possible in the position they would have occupied but for 

 his untimely death. 



Subscriptions may be sent to the Honorary Treasurer, 

 Major Macgregor, R.E., Science Schools, South Ken- 

 sington Museum, London, S.W. ; or to the Honorary 

 Secretary of the fund, Mr. C. Vernon Boys, at the same 

 address. Cheques to be crossed " Messrs. Cox and Co." 



In addition to the gentlemen named above, the Execu- 

 tive Committee consists of Capt. Abney, Prof \V. G. 

 Adams, Prof. Roberts Austen, Walter Besant, Prof G. 

 Carey Foster, Dr. J. H. Gladstone, W. J. Harrison, J. 

 Power Hicks, Prof J. W. Judd, Prof A. W. Reinold, and 

 Prof Balfour Stewart ; besides whom there is a General 

 Committee, comprising Prof W. E. Ayrton, Shelford 

 Bidwell, Walter Bailey, T. Lauder Brunton, W. H. M. 

 Christie, Prof Clifton, Conrad Cooke, Prof Crookes, 

 Warren De La Rue, Prof Dewar, Colonel Donnelly, 

 General .Festing, Prof G. Forbes, Prof Fuller, R. T. 

 Glazebrook, Prof Goodeve, Dr. Hopkinson, J. Norman 

 Lockver, Sir John Lubbock, Bart., Prof MacLeod, Prof 

 J. Perry, Prof Poynting, Prof Riicker, Dr. W. J. Russell, 

 Prof W. .■\. Tilden, Prof S. P. Thompson, Prof Thorpe, 

 and Dr. Alder Wright. 



It is satisfactory to hear that already a considerable 

 number of subscriptions have been received, but it is 

 hoped that when the necessity for the existence of such a 

 fund shall become better known there may be a large 

 increase in the number. 



VOLCAMC ERUPTION IN NIUA-FU, 

 FRIENDLY ISLANDS 



SIR J. H. LEFROY has forwarded to me a small 

 packet of volcanic dust, together with an extract 

 from a letter written by Mr. Coutts Trotter, F.R.G.S., 

 and has requested me to examine the former and append 

 my remarks upon it to the more important parts of 

 Mr. Trotter's letter. This document is dated on September 

 24, 1S86, "on board the ss. Suva, a few miles south of 

 Uie Island of Niua-foou" (or Niua-fu, one of the Friendly 

 Islands). After speaking of an expedition to Fiji, Mr. 

 Trotter. proceeds :— 



" Meanwhile I got into a little steamer to visit the 

 windward island of the group, and was persuaded to come 

 on in her to Tonga. There I found that news had just 

 come of an awful volcanic eruption in the Island of 

 N iuafoou above mentioned, and my steamer was chartered 

 to go and make inquiries and give relief . . . We started 

 at once, and arrived off the island before dark yesterday. 

 No trace of fire or smoke, and I was much chafted for 

 my ' disappointment.' But on landing this morning we 

 oimd the damage done was substantial enough, an erup- 



tion of dust and stones and water having gone on for 

 eighteen days, and two-thirds of the island smothered or 

 greatly injured. The island is some forty or fifty miles 

 round, all volcanic, no beach anywhere, and landing 

 difficult, and a lake of brackish-bitter water occupying 

 perhaps a fourth or more of its extent. There are at all 

 events three small islands in the lake, one with a lake in 

 its centre. I suspect this lake is the remains of the crater 

 and eruption to which the existence of the island is due, 

 later eruptions being cause for the small island craters. 

 The present eruption began apparently near one end of 

 the lake. I saw three or four craters there— one covered 

 with a green sulphurous scum ; and another, just beyond it, 

 which I could not in the time I had actually visit, very 

 deep, and full (a friend tells me) of mud and water. Near 

 it is a little rounded mountain of ' earth,' some 200 feet 

 high, formed by the present eruption, and projecting far 

 into the lake; at the other end of the lake is a fresh 

 accumulation, as I was told, of pumice, but it looked to 

 me from where I stood more like an accumulation of 

 black sand. The whole island has been in a disturbed 

 state for some three months and a half, the dates of the 

 principal disturbances coinciding reinarkably with those 

 which are going on in other parts of the world — earth- 

 quakes on June 8 and 11, which I think are the dates of 

 the first New Zealand outbreaks,' again on -August 12, 

 ditto. This of course is not wonderful, but the final 

 catastrophe here took place on August 31, which we 

 understand was the exact date of the recent American 

 earthquake.- It was preceded for twenty-four hours by 

 earthquakes, . . . and went on for ten days, I am told, 

 without intermission, then two days quiet interval, then 

 going on again for nearly a week— terrific thunder and 

 lightning for twenty four hours incessantly. The column 

 of steam rose, thev say, several thousand feet, anyhow 

 immensely higher 'than a hill 7600 feet high, which I 

 ascended, and whence I had a bird's-eye view of the lake 

 and crater. Showers of stone accompanied it ; these 

 fortunately fell straight, or nearly straight, back. They 

 were red-hot, with mas5es of dust attached, and as they fell 

 left the dust behind, which produced the effect of a fiery 

 tail. The great mischief was done by the dust, which, as 

 the wind shifted, carried destruction in every direction. 

 In one village which I entered, the shower only lasted an 

 hour and a half, but the ground was deeply covered, the 

 blades of grass even now only beginning to peep through, 

 and every coco-palm ruined for the present, the branches 

 hanging withered and almost perpendicular, and the young 

 central shoot sticking out by itself If they get rain, the 

 trees will recover and bear again in three years, but other- 

 wise are likely to die. But in other districts the houses 

 are buried, and along the coast large extents of forest, scrub, 

 or bush, and, what is more immediately serious, the yam 

 beds. Thev have just been planted, and any that were above 

 ground will be killed, even if the latest planted may push 

 through and flourish. Wonderful to say, no one was killed, 

 although many very old people have died since from fear 

 and exhaustion. They all betook themselves to the upper 

 parts of the island for safety, and perhaps with reason, 

 for the last two volcanic outbursts both took place on the 

 coast-country near the shore. These (respectively nine- 

 teen and fortv years ago) were both lava eruptions. I 

 saw the craters and the lava-streams from them down to the 

 sea on the west coast as we steamed along to-day ; the 

 lava of the earliest being hardly invaded yet by vegetation 

 —not a blade of green on the later, which runs far out 

 into the sea, like the rough substratum for a big embank- 

 ment or breakwater. According to native tradition, the 

 last eruption of a kind similar to the present took place 

 from \-ery nearly the same spot in the lake se\enty-two years 

 ago, the old people having childish recollections yet. The 



' The first o-jtbreak was early on the morning of June 10. See Nature, 



'' The principal shock wa 

 'ol. xx.\iv. p. 470, and vol. 



Tuesday night, August 31 

 '• P- 31- 



