654 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 



3. The Humber during the Human Period. By T. Sheppard, F.G.S. 



Mr. Sheppard has made a collection of the various published and manuscript 

 charts and maps of East Yorkshire dating from the time of Henry VIII. to date. 

 A great number of these are of particular interest, as they illustrate the extra- 

 ordinary changes that have taken place in the south-east corner of Yorkshire. 

 Probably no district in the British Islands illustrates so well recent geographical 

 changes as does South-east Yorkshire. 



Between Bridlington and Spurn Point, a distance of some thirty miles, the 

 land has been worn away at a rate varying from a few feet to over twenty feet 

 per annum. Careful measurements show that an average of seven feet per annum 

 has been washed away along this coast line. This estimate is confirmed by 

 historical data. Entire villages have been swept away; in recent years great 

 areas of land have been swamped ; whilst, on the other hand, meres and marshes 

 in Holderness have been artificially drained and are now dry land. 



Spurn Point is the only part of the Holderness coast that has grown, and 

 measurements of this are given showing its progress from 1428. It was also 

 pointed out that at different periods in its history the tongue of sand had been 

 severed and islands were formed. Upon some of these the author suggested the 

 towns of Ravenser and Ravenser Odd existed in mediaeval times but have now 

 disappeared. After dealing with the lost villages and towns of the coast and 

 the Humber the author described in detail the growth of new land within the 

 estuary, particularly at Sunk Island, Reads Island, and Broomfleet Island. 

 Photographs of the various charts were thrown upon the screen, some of which 

 were exceedingly scarce or had been previously entirely unknown. One of them, 

 circa Henry VIII., showed an island to the east of Spurn Point. 



The following plans were exhibited in illustration of the paper : MS., temp. 

 Henry VIII. ; Speed, 1610 ; Dutch map, early seventeenth century ; Blome, early 

 seventeenth century; Collins, 1684; Morden, 1722; Moll, 1724; Chart, 1725; 

 Scott, 1734; Bowen, 1750; Jeffreys, 1772; Kitchen, 1774; Tuke, 1786; Cary, 1805; 

 Directory, 1838; Boyle, 1889. 



An interesting series of plans and views of Hull illustrated in the way in which 

 that town was encroaching upon the Humber estuary. 



4. Matavanu, a New Volcano in Savaii {German Samoa). 

 By Tempest Anderson, M.D., D.Sc., F.G.S. 



Though not the seat of government, Savaii is the largest of the Sampan 

 Islands in the Central Pacific Ocean. It has a backbone of volcanic mountains, 

 some of which rise to a height of over 4,000 feet; most of them are extinct or 

 dormant, but there have been several small eruptions within the last two hundred 

 years, and ore as lately as 1902. 



The volcano of Matavanu was formed in 1905 to the north of the main ridge, 

 and near the centre of the island. The early part of the eruption was character- 

 ised by explosions, and the ejecta were mainly solid, but later on an enormous 

 quantity of very fluid basic lava has been discharged. This has flowed by a 

 sinuous course of about ten miles into the sea, devastated some of the most 

 fertile land in the island, and covered it up with lava fields probably not less 

 than twenty square miles in area. 



The crater contains a lake, or rather river, of molten lava so fluid that it 

 rises in incandescent fountains, beats in waves on the walls, and rushes with 

 great velocity down into a gulf or tunnel at one end of the crater. The lava, 

 still liquid, runs into a passage, or perhaps system of passages, under the surface 

 of the lava field, its course being traceable by a line of large fumaroles, till, 

 still in a fluid condition, it reaches the sea, into which it flows with energetic 

 explosions and the discharge of large volumes of steam, black sand, and frag- 

 ments of lava. Where the action is less violent a structure resembling that of 

 some varieties of pillow lava is produced. 



Photographs were shown on the screen illustrating the crater, the lava fields, 

 with their subsidences and tunnels, the explosions, as well as others which 

 enabled a comparison to be made between the devastated and untouched parte 

 of the island. 



See Q, J. Geol., November 1910; Natvre, November 17, 1910. 



