A NEW VOLCANO.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 197, 18 August 1906, Page 5

A NEW VOLCANO.

Increased Activity on Savaii. (Received 10.4 a.m.) SYDNEY, this day. The missionary yacht John Williams, from Samoa, reported that a new volcano has appeared at Savaii, and makes a ' magnificent sight. The crater iB still emitting dense volumes of smoke, and | great columns of steam rise when the lava comes in contact with the sea. [Savaii, the principal island of the Samoan parts, has an area of about 660 square miles, and Upolu has 345 square miles, hut whereas on the smaller islands all the area is habitable, and most of the land cultivable, Savaii is, with the ex- j ception of a. fringe round the coast, an ' arid desert. Of the magnitude of the earlier upheaval something may be judged when it is said that the rim of the crater of the supposed extinct volcano was last year only about 200 ft above sea level, and the mountain is now one in fact as well as name, towering over 2000 ft above the country it is devastating and sending floods of lava down its sides and toward the sea. The fiery flood has to travel about 30 miles to reach the ocean, and runs into it with a hissing and boiling commotion which is heard miles i away. As each accretion of la.va is cooled j by the waves another pours down to and | over it, gradually "but continually increasing the area of the island, but leaving a level rocky waste where were formerly valleys . formed into bowers by cocoannt palms and hibiscus. There are in many places 10 and 20 fecit of lava now lying upon what were villages and palm groves a few months ago.Jj