A Forgotten Eruption.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5337, 15 August 1895, Page 4

A Forgotten Eruption.

At a meeting of the Auckland Institute, held last week, a paper prepared by Mr Percy Smith, the SurveyorGeneral, and containing an account of a volcanic eruption which occurred at Sunday Island, in the Kermadeo 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 Sept. 17, 1814. It described the first appearance by volcanic agency, on March 8, 1814, of an island at the entrance to Denham Bay. The upheaval was witnessed by Captain Barnes, of a Sydney -vessel named the Jefferson, which had been engaged in trading on the coast ot New Zealand. In March, 1814, he was employed in getting wood at Sunday Island, and while in Denham Bay he took soundings, which showed that there were forty-five fathoms of water on a line with the heads of the bay, gradually decreasing to sixteen . fathoms near the shore. On Maroh 8 the Jefferson was about twenty- , one miles . off Sunday Island, when suddenly a thick cloud of dark smoky appearance was observed above the island, where ib remained all day. At midnight a flame broke forth, and the atmosphere was filled with a sulphurous odour. Cap* tain Barnes returned to Sunday Island, 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 daya previously. It was three mile 3in 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 Barnes was informed by Captain Jonea, of the King George, that he had some time previously sounded Denham Bay, and at the place where Barnes found forty-five fathoms he could get no bottom with a lead and line.' This suggested that the land had been gradually growing np from the bottom of the sea, and its vast area was shown by the fact that its summit was three miles round. The island has since, disappeared — probably as suddenly as it broke through the surface of the water— but Mr Smith sees no reason to doubt Captain Barnes's story.