THE SAMOAN VOLCANO.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 9187, Issue XLI, 11 April 1910, Page 2

THE SAMOAN VOLCANO.

A SERPENT OF FIRE

MISSIONARY'S GRAPHIC STORY

What-had been a peaceful, sleepy, very beautiful valley on the north coast of Savaii, in Samoa, during the afternoon, became suddenly, in the still of one night, an inferno of roaring red gases, fold on fold of black crumpled cloud rushing aloft ; a bowl brimming with dazzling white lava, which lapped over and trickled down tho valley. The sleeping settlements of natives were scurrying from the neighbourhood like frightened rabbits. That night was some years ago. But the lava is running still. The story of it was told to a Sydney Morning Herald interviewer last week by a man who had just left it—Rev. J. E. Newell who reached Sydney by the steamer Atua. "It is now in active eruption/' he said. "It is pouring tons of lava into the sea—constantly. It is now making a new promontory. It has piled up in sea, has reached the sea level, and is now piling itself up on the sea. A great pillar of smoke is always rising, rising, from the sea. You can see that cloud 20 miles away.

"The native village of Matutu is the nearest to the volcano —only six miles away. The people are still living in Matautu, quite unconcerned now. But it was not always lige that. At first they were very, very much alarmed —terror-stricken. Tiiey used to hold prayer meetings every morning at daylight for a long time after the-first outbreak. Now they take it as part of their natural surroundings —go about their business exactly as if it were not there at all.

"It is a singular fact that no lives were lost in these eruptions. He was a kindly volcano in this respect—he always pre-announced his eruptions by violent shocks of earthquake and terrific rumblings, so that the people had plenty of warning. "Moreover, you can see the volcano coming down- like a great fiery serpent, licking up forest trees as it , crawls along. You can stand and Watch that glowing serpent in the distance creeping up to a giant tree, feeling its way completely round it, and then flinging it bodily downhill as if it had been felled in the twinkling of an eye by some miraculous axeman. There is no resisting the flow of this terrific lava when it goes along at that serpent pace down a river bed or along a valley towards the. ocean. "One night I was camped on a mountain close beside the valley, when an eruption took place. The lava was actually pouring out of the side of the mountain less than lialf-a-mile awa> from our camp. We could see to read by the light from it. It Avas a terrific night. The Avhole mountain shook at the outburst. It was a portentous shock. "The actual point where the crater lies is only six miles from the sea. But the lava must have crawled around about eight miles before it came out on the coast'. If it had gone straight it Avould have overborne the village of Matautu. But it Avent easterly and took in five other villages, each of considerable size. "There are in Samoa old dry riverbeds Avhich become torrents only in the wet season, and are dry beds for the rest of the year. Our volcano came in the dry season and monopolized the riverbeds and flowed along them in a huge molten mass. I have Avatched that stream moving until I Avas fascinated. I could not Avithdraw my eyes. I could not leave it. Tho mountain is in eruption mnv; but you cannot see the lava. The crust of it has cooled, but it is still floAving along a tunnel underneath, doAvn one of those old riverbeds to the sea. "Many people think a volcano must be in a mountain. That is wrong. The A-olcano started in a valley. It has actually become a mountain since by reason of the accumulation of laA'a. That is hoAV mountains are formed. Dr Jensen, avli has been to Samoa, has a theory that this is one of a string of volcanoes stretching right back to one that Avas told of in tradition by the natives, and Avhich is iioav extinct. There Avas another burst out eight years ago, and died aAvay. Noav this one broke out in a peaceful valley, and has been active ever since."