NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
653 
column of smoke seen by clay and the series of small fires visible at its summit by night. 
Nearly all the inhabitants of Gamiguin, the population of which formerly amounted to 1 1,000 
had left the island in consequence of the outburst. The volcano, a dome-shaped mass 
standing on the sea shore, was found red and glowing with heat in cracks at the summit, 
and smoke was ascending from it. There appeared to be no crater, and Mr. Buchanan, 
who was one of the landing party, drew attention to the fact that the lava of which it 
was composed was entirely trachytic. It recalled in form at once some of the smaller 
trachytic domes of the Puy de Dome district, in the Auvergne, concerning the mode of 
formation of which there has been much doubt. The mass in this case appeared never 
to have had any crater, but rose with steep walls directly from the soil, formerly covered 
‘ Fig. 220. — New Volcano, Gamiguin Island. 
with vegetation which it had destroyed, and it appeared as if the trachytic lava 'had 
issued from a central cavity and boiled over, as it were, till it set into the form of the 
dome. The rocks collected at the volcano were amphibolic andesite containing some 
crystals of augite, and augite-andesite with hornblende, the specimens showing often 
transition between the two types of rocks. 
The ground around the crater was still almost bare of vegetation, but some plants 
were beginning to colonize the denuded soil, strongly impregnated as it was with various 
volcanic chemical products. Three species of ferns, as first colonists, grew as isolated 
plants here and there ; and along the courses of two small streams fed by hot springs, 
issuing from the base of the volcano, where the poisoned ground was constantly washed, 
a good deal of vegetation was to be found, amongst which were several sedges and grasses 
