A FORGOTTEN ERUPTION.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 3, Issue 146, 18 September 1895, Page 3

A FORGOTTEN ERUPTION.

At a meeting of tho Auclda

nslitute, held recently, a paper pr red by Mr Percy Smith, tho Sur acyor-General, and containing an oc counfc of a volcanic eruption which at Sunday Island, in the ermadec group, more than eighty years ago, was read by the Secretary. The account was compiled from a report which appeared in the Sydney Gazette, of September 17, ISI4. It viesci-ibed the first appearance by volcanic agency, on March 8, ISM, of an island at tho entrance to Denbam Eay. The upheaval was witnessed by Captain Barnes, of a Sydney vessel named the Jefferson, which had been engaged in trading on the coast of New Zealand, in March, ISI4, he was employed in getting wood at Sunday Island, and while in Denham Bay he took soundings, which showed that there were forty-live fathoms of water on a line with the heads of the Bay gradually decreasing to sixteen lathoms near the shore. Oil March 8 tho Jefferson ivos about twenty-one miles off Sunday Island, when suddenly a thick cloud of dark smoky appearance was observed above the island, where it remained all day. At midnight a flame broke forth, and the atmosphere was filled with a sulphurous odour. Captain Barnes returned to Sunday loland, and found the appearance of Denham Bay entirely altered. An island occupied the place where forty-five fathoms of water had been found a few days previously. It was three miles in circumference, the outer edge being on a line with the heads. The water was very warm around the island, which was evidently a smouldering mass. Subsequently Captain Barues was informed by Captain Jones, of the King George, that he had some time previously sounded Denham Bay, and at the place where Barnes found forty-five fathoms ho could get no bottom with a load and line. This suggested that tho land had been gradually growing up from the "bottom. of the sea, and its vast area was 3 hown by the fact that its summit yaa tiiree miles round. The island ia s since disappeared—probably as suddenly as it broke through the mrface of the water—but Mr Smith iee 3 no reason to doubt Captain iarne's story.