The Active Volcanoes of the New Hebrides. 131 
this pursuit when we arrived off the shores of the island, so 
that we found the latter enveloped in a thick smoky curtain, 
and almost completely screened from public view. It was ex- 
tremely inconsiderate in it to do this ; but as such was the case, 
we had only to take it for granted that much fine scenery lay 
behind the curtain, and to make out as best we could some 
parts not quite hidden. 
While speaking of volcanoes, I might mention the fact of our 
sighting another active one, while on our way to Ambrim, and 
not more than forty or fifty miles from it. It is on a small 
island called Lopevi, said to be 5000 feet high. We passed a 
long way off, but still we could distinctly observe the smoky 
appearance to leeward of the island. It is like a sugar-loaf 
rising out of the sea, and at its summit, often above the clouds, 
it puffs out a stream of black smoke. It must greatly resemble, 
I fancy, Volcano Island in the Santo Cruz group, to the north 
of the New Hebrides, which is thus described by a visitor :— 
‘A magnificent cone in full eruption, rising almost perpendicu- 
larly out of the sea, at the height of between 2000 and 3000 
feet.—It was a glorious sight to see the great stones leaping 
and bounding down the side of the cone, clearing 300 or 400 
feet at a jump, and springing up many yards into the air, finally 
plunging into the sea with a roar, and the splash of the foam 
and the hiss of the sea combined.” Of course we were not 
near enough to Lopevi to see anything of this kind ; but it ap- 
peared quite steep enough to cause stones to roll from the top 
to the bottom of it. It would be rather a fine sight if they do 
so, to watch the great stones roll down 5000 feet and then 
plunge into the sea. I shouldn’t think there were any inhabit- 
ants on Lopevi. 
This volcano, with the one on Ambrim and the one on Tana, 
comprises all the active volcanoes on the group. But to return 
to Ambrim. 
K2 
