TIMOR ISLAND. 985 
mits wet. An occasional bubble of gas broke in the rising mud, 
and I found that by shaking myself I could communicate a vi- 
bration to the mud-cracked surface and cause bubbles to appear 
in rapid succession. The gas proved to be inflammable. Our 
guide, who was an old man, stated that he had seen the mud 
volcano in activity and that it made a noise and had a flame 
which gave a light visible from Viqueque. He could not tell 
the date of the eruption, but said that it was many years ago. 
This seemed evident from the growth of small trees near the 
spot. . I think it is probable that there have been several erup- 
tions of the mud cone, some of which may have resulted from 
“excitement” during the periods of violent earthquakes which 
have occurred since its formation. The successive mud flows 
accord with this idea. 
_ A few days after leaving Viqueque, I met Dr. Frederic Weber 
of Geneva, Switzerland, who has examined oil properties at 
Polaca. He had traveled in the western part of Portuguese 
Timor, and he assured me that he had seen no signs of recent 
voleanoes. He kindly showed me a copy of an article by Dr. 
Hans Hirsch ? who had made notes on the geology along practi- 
cally the same route which I had traveled, but following it in a 
reverse direction. Hirsch described the mud cone near Vique- 
que and ascribed it to a gas eruption. He stated its location as 
being 7 kilometers southeast of Fato-Hada which, according to 
his map, is the same village which I have called Viqueque. 
A careful search of the literature on volcanoes shows that 
most writers in speaking of Timor have followed substantially 
the statements made by Scrope, but with some errors in tran- 
scribing the date. Mercalli,? however, makes some additional 
statements. He says: 
The volcano of the island of Timor made a grand explosive eruption in 
1638, another violent explosive eruption occurred at the volcano Floan-Bano 
in the western part of Timor the 26th of December, 1856; finally a third 
eruption took place in the volcano Bibiluto in May 1857 (Perrey). 
In a footnote he cites Scrope in reference to the eruption of 
1638 and adds: 
In 1856 two people were killed by stones hurled out by the volcano of 
Timor. The eruption of 1857 was accompanied by a strong earthquake and 
a fissuring of the ground which caused the death of 36 people (Perrey). 
Probably all these eruptions should be referred to one volcano which bears 
different names. 
* Neues Jahrb. f. Mineral., Geol. u. Paleon, 24, Beilage Band, 160. 
* G. Mercalli, I Vulcani Attivi Della Terra, 313. 
