PEALE.J THERMAL SPEINGS OF POLYNESIA. 351 



found in connection with tlie volcanic ran^c^e, especially at the base of 

 Berapi, a volcano over 12,000 feet in lieight. The other localities of 

 which I find mention made, are included in the accompanying catalogue. 



AUSTRALASIA. 



Australia, so far as known, has no volcanoes, nor lias it any thermal 

 springs. A fossiliferous, siliceous deposit has been found in New South 

 Wales which answers in api)earance to geyser-sinter. The region is vol- 

 canic, and geysers may once have existed there. To the northeast and 

 cast, however, in the island of New Britain, the Solomon Islands, New 

 Hebrides, and New Zealand a branch of the volcanic line is continued 

 from the Eastern Archipelago, and on this line thermal springs are found, 

 as our catalogue indicates, New Britain, Great Banks and Santa Maria 

 Islands, the New Hebrides, and New Zealand all having springs of high 

 temperatures. The noted localities of New Zealand have been described 

 in Chapter II, and no further description is necessary. The catalogue 

 shows that besides the geyser areas the North Island has several other 

 spring localities, and that the South Island is not without its thermal 

 springs. 



POLYNESIA. 



Under this head I will simply refer to the springs of the Fiji Islands 

 and of the Sandwich Islands. The former might perhaps be included 

 under the head of Australasia, as they lie but a short distance east ot 

 the New Hebrides. 



Fiji IsJa7ids. — The thermal springs of the group are found on three of 

 the islands, those of Savu-Savu on Vanua Levu being the most noted. 

 They are found in two places, and extend for half a mile along the shore, 

 some springs bubbling up through the salt water below high-water 

 mark. The three principal springs are in a circle or basin of 150 yards 

 by 40 yards, which is 9 feet above high tide. They are intermittent, 

 the highest spouting 2 or 3 feet into the air. The water is saline and 

 gives off a slight sulphurous odor. Formerly there were fifteen springs, 

 and they were much used as kitchens, especially for cannibal feasts, 

 one of the springs in particular being used as a caldron. Miss 0. F. 

 Gordon-Cumming says that in 1863 a chief captured the old woman who 

 owned these springs, and also sixteen men. 



She was past seventy, and must have been very tough and smoke-di'ied, but as in 

 her younger days she had been a regular Joan of Are, leading her tribe to battle, and 

 herself tightiug hand to hand with a hatchet, he determined to eat her. So he had 

 her cooked with the sixteen men, and made a great feast, and then, to spite the peo- 

 ple, before leaving the district he atteuijjted to choke up all of the springs, in which 

 amiable effort he partially succeeded. These springs were also a favorite place for 

 depositing all superfluous babes, especially girls, who never got much of a w^elcome. 

 They were popped in alive like so many lobsters, and treated with quite as little 

 ceremony. 



The rocks near the springs are basalts and trachytes, but there is at 

 present no active volcano in the group.* 



Other spring localities are found on Vanua Levu and the other 

 islands. They are enumerated in the table. 



San/hcich Islands. — The islands are somewhat isolated, and, according 

 to Judd, form an exceptionally situated volcanic group. Its volcanoes 

 are unsurpassed in height and bulk by those of any other portion of the 

 world. The cones rise to a height of 14,000 feet, while the sea around 



*" Volcanoes, p. 237. 



