384 The New Zealand Volcanic Outburst. 



system of strata, with no very important breaks in it, the conven- 

 tional limits which are to be adopted for the Upper, Middle and 

 Lower divisions, respectively, appear to me to be a question of by 

 no means great importance. At the same time, any attempt to 

 disturb, without very good cause shown, names which have come 

 into general use, or to alter the definition of terms which have been 

 generally accepted — whether the attempt be made by officers of the 

 Geological Survey, in their individual or their corporate capacity — 

 will, I strongly suspect, prove a hopeless, as I am sure that it is a 

 useless, task. Consequently, I trust the idea of " formulating a new 

 nomenclature " as the result of " the revision by the members of 

 the Geological Survey " of the Cretaceous rocks of England, is one 

 that will, in moments of calmer reflection, be abandoned. Scientific 

 names go through a " struggle for existence," and the fittest survive. 

 I trust my friend Mr. Jukes-Browne will draw a moral from the 

 fact, that the nameNeocomian has shown a very considerably greater 

 vitality than he seems to have suspected. 



But while Mr. Jukes-Browne gives me credit for that of which I 

 cannot possibly accept the honour, he himself assumes a respon- 

 sibility which, it seems to -me, he is not called upon to bear. In 

 speaking of " the merits of the name (Vectian) which I have already 

 proposed as a substitute for Lower Greensand," he must surely have 

 forgotten a well-known passage in the works of Dr. Fitton. After 

 remarking that he had long since stated his objections to the use of the 

 term Lower Greensand, that author writes as follows: — "If here- 

 after a change be thought desirable, he conceives that the new 

 denomination should be taken from the Isle of Wight, where this 

 portion of the sub- cretaceous groups was first distinguished, and 

 where the sections on the coast are remarkable for their distinctness ; 

 and if such a case should arise, he suggests the name Vectine for the 

 strata now called Lower Green Sand, from the ancient name of that 

 island, — Insula Vectis of the Eomans " (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 

 1845, vol. i. p. 189). 



As the paper in which this passage occurs was read in 1844 and 

 published in 1845, it seems to me scarcely more likely that Mr. 

 Jukes-Browne could have offered useful hints on the subject to Fitton 

 than that I was engaged in a previous year in improperly influencing 

 Godwin-Austen. John W. Judd. 



Eruption of Mount Tarawera, North Island, New Zealand. 

 — A most destructive volcanic outburst occurred on the night of the 9th of June, 

 from Tarawera, a mountain not more than 3000 feet high, which rises near the lake 

 of the same name, and about nine miles from Eotomahana. At two o'clock a shock 

 of greater violence occurred followed by a terrific roar, a pillar of light shot up from 

 the summit of Tarawera, molten lava and hot mud were rained abroad, while huge 

 rocks were thrown up and around in all directions. Showers of hot cinders and 

 boiling mud covered the settlement of Wairoa, killing on the spot or burying alive 

 numbers of persons. For sixty miles the destruction has spread. About 100 persons 

 have perished, whilst villages and settlements are covered with eight or ten feet of 

 mud or ashes. We hope to give a fuller account in our next number. 



