626 
DR. TEMPEST AXDERSOX OX THE 
[XoV. 1910, 
Present State of the Cone and Lava-Fields. 
From the sea at night the view of the volcano is extremely 
striking. 1 The glare from the incandescent lava in the crater 
reflected on the clouds is visible for a distance of 50 miles or more, 
while on nearer approach the spectacle of a number of streams 
of red-hot lava descending into the sea and raising columns of 
illuminated vapour is very remarkable and at present probably 
unique. By day the view, though quite different, is equally 
interesting. The crater rising to a height of 2000 feet with a 
backing of hills, or rather mountains of double that height, and 
with several old cones of different ages dotted around, is sur¬ 
mounted by a magnificent canopy of white steam of the well-known 
pine-tree shape, often breaking out into the equally well-known 
cauliflower lobes. This frequently rises to a height of 8000 or 10,000 
feet (PI. XLY, fig. 1). Surrounding the crater for a distance of a 
mile or two in the shortest direction, and stretching down to the 
coast in the sinuous line indicated on Mr. Williams's map, are the 
great black lava-fields, which comprise an area of probably at least 
20 square miles. At intervals along these lava-fields, and taking an 
equally if not more sinuous line, are several conspicuous clouds of 
vapour escaping from as many fumaroles, some of large size, which 
mark the line of a great lava-tunnel to the sea-shore, and there are 
some smaller ones in the other direction more to the west, which 
show the position of a smaller underground stream towards Safune. 
In the foreground again is the new coast-line formed of the wide¬ 
spread fresh lava-currents, with usually several magnificent columns 
of vapour rising some hundreds, or even thousands, of feet into the 
air from the places where the lava is for the moment falling into 
the sea. With a very good glass the observer may perhaps distin¬ 
guish the towers or other parts of two churches, which are nearly 
all that mark the position of the destroyed villages of Saleaula and 
Sataputu ; while a still more careful scrutiny will enable him to 
make out a few dead tree-trunks still erect among the lava and 
many more lying prostrate on its surface. Looking still farther 
afield are large areas where whitened tree-trunks are all that remain 
of the once dense tropical jungle, though in some places vegetation 
is beginning to return. Such is the view, some details of which 
call for a fuller notice. 
The cone does not rise high above the surrounding lava-field. 
At the east side there is one point where the slope of the latter 
continues uninterrupted to within about 50 feet vertical of the 
lowest point of the lip of the crater, and even then the slope up to 
it is still very gradual, aud probably does not exceed 15°. At 
other points the edge of the crater is somewhat more elevated, 2 
and may reach an altitude 150 feet higher than the point referred 
to ; and, as the lava-fields are in places lower, it is probable that 
1 At night I saw it once from the deck of a steamer of the Union Company 
of New Zealand, once from a German man of war, twice from a schooner, and 
also in the daytime from a boat. 
2 M} 7 aneroid reading made the height almost exactly 2000 feet. 
