398 The Recent Volcanic Eruption in Neio Zealand. 



Fig. 7. Thamnosmilia annulata, sp. nov., a portion of a corallum, natural size, 



showing the rugose epitheca. 

 ,,8. ,, ,, calice of the same specimen (natural size) . 



,, 9. ,, ,, some septa magnified 2| times, showing their con- 



nection with the columella. In this and in the 

 foregoing figure, the septa are dark in colour as 

 in the original ; the infilling of the loculi being 

 white. 

 ,, 10. Stephanoccenia dendroidea, sp. nov., three calices, magnified six times. 

 „ 11. ,, expansa, sp. nov., a calice, magnified nearly 14 times. 



In neither of the figures of Stephanoccenia are the denticulations of the septa 

 shown. 



[To be continued in our -next Number.) 



II. — Note on the Eecent Volcanic Eruption in New Zealand. 



Communicated by Robert Etheridge, Jun., Esq., 



of the British Museum. 



THE " Lake District " of the North Island is too well known to 

 all students of volcanic phenomena, especially of that branch 

 comprising hydrothermal action, to need a detailed description. It 

 will be sufficient to say that it forms a belt, crossing the island from 

 north-east to south-west, and forms a portion of the Middle and 

 Upper Waikato Basins of Hochstetter. The district has been re- 

 cently brought into prominent notice by the disastrous eruption of 

 Mount Tarawera, very full accounts of which have appeared in New 

 Zealand papers lately received. The eruption commenced in the 

 early morning of Thursday, June 10th, but premonitory symptoms 

 showed themselves a few days before in a tidal wave, three feet high, 

 on Lake Tarawera, great uneasiness of the springs at Ohinemutu, 

 and the reported appearance of smoke issuing from Kuapehu, the 

 highest of the great trachytic cones at the extreme south-westerly 

 end of the system. The belt of activity extends from Mount 

 Tongariro at the one end to White Island, in the Bay of Plenty, at 

 the other, a distance of about 150 miles. White Island has under- 

 gone considerable change from volcanic action during recent years, 

 and Tongariro was last in eruption in July, 1871 ; whilst its snow- 

 clad sister cone Buapehu has never manifested volcanic action 

 within the historic period until now. This wide zone in the centre 

 of the North Island has, ever since the arrival of the Maoris, been 

 the scene of such extraordinary phenomena, that it has of late been 

 the resort of visitors from all quarters of the globe. 



At 2-10 a.m. on June 10th the inhabitants of the rising town of 

 Botorua were aroused by a violent earthquake, accompanied by a 

 fearful roar, whilst away to the south Mount Tarawera appeared to 

 be in eruption, an immense black mushroom-shaped cloud hanging 

 over the whole country from Taheke to Pairoa Mountain, accom- 

 panied by lightning and heavy peals of thunder. About 4 a.m. 

 ash-dust began to fall, but a shift of wind turned it coastwards, 

 " where it worked its calamitous will to the full." As the day wore 

 on it was found that Botorua had not suffered much beyond this 

 covering of dust and the appearance of fresh boiling springs, neither 



