332 



AUSTRALASIA. 



Fig. 142.— New Hebrides. 

 Scale 1 : 9,500,000. 



volcanic origin, as is evident from the regular cones strewn with ashes and lavas, 

 which occur in nearly all these Melanesian lands. According to Dana, the almost 

 total absence of coralline reefs must be attributed to the activity of the igneous 



forces ; although lying between 

 New Caledonia and Fiji, so rich in 

 corals, neither Santa- Cruz nor the 

 New Hebrides have a single atoll, 

 and the only complete fringing 

 reef is that which encircles the 

 island of Vanikoro. Tinakoro, a 

 northern member of the Santa- 

 Cruz group, is in a constant state 

 of eruption, while a volcano 1,870 

 feet high, in the islet of Urepara- 

 para. Banks Archipelago, shows a 

 breached crater facing north-east- 

 wards and now flooded by the sea. 

 Copious thermal springs well up on 

 the shores of Yanua-Lava, in the 

 same neighbourhood ; both the 

 island of Ambrym (3,590 feet), in 

 the centre of the New Hebrides, 

 and the precipitous Mount Lopevi 

 (5,000 feet), culminating point of 

 that group, are active volcanoes, 

 as is also the wooded Mount Yasova, 

 in Tanna (Tanna Aiperi), near the 

 southern extremity of the chain. 

 Yapours, ashes, and lumps of lava 

 are ejected from this crater at in- 

 tervals of six or eight minutes, 

 especially in the months of Jan- 

 uary, February, and March. Port 

 Resolution, an excellent harbour 

 in Tanna, was filled up by an earth- 

 quake in 1878. 



Submarine disturbances are of 

 frequent occurrence in these waters, 

 where vessels have occasionally to 

 force their way through dense masses of floating pumice. Besides the still restless 

 craters a number of other insular cones were formerly the scene of igneous convul- 

 sions. Many places show indications of comparatively recent upheaval, and Ormières 

 speaks of mangrove roots encrusted with shells lying some 40 feet above the 

 present sea-level. 



to 1,000 

 Fathoms. 



Depths. 



1,000 to 2,000 

 Fathoms. 



2,000 Fathoms 

 and upwards. 



180 Miles. 



