A Letter from White Island.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume VII, Issue 6, 1 March 1903, Page 454

A Letter from White Island.

From one who lived there during an Eruption.

By VICTOR ZEAL.

f^CCORDING to my promise I | at last write you a short i account of my life o*l this Ik little volcano. r So far I have lived here for two years, and wildly exciting have been some of my experiences. White Island, as yoiu know, is marked on all maps as a volcano, and is full of hot springs and steam holes, also great quantities of sulphur, and is, perhaps, one of the finest sights in the world. It is about nine miles in circumference, and at one side rises abruptly out of the ocean to a height of 1200 feet. It is always canopied by a snowy cloud of steam. The cliffs, which rise to the full height of the mountain, are of the most dazzling colours. Red hematite, black obsidian, and yellow ochre blending with the brown and white rocks, whilst green and golden sulphur crystals glint everywhere. In the centre of the island is a lake of about twenty-live acres area. It is highly charged with hydrochloric acid, arid is of a peagreen colour. It is a magnificent sight to stand on the far side of this lake on a sunny morning, and to look seaward. On either hand 1 are the towering cliffs, in the foreground the bright green lake, overhead, like a bridal veil, floats the snowy cloud of steam, while stretching away to the horizon lies the sapphire sea, nil tipped with dancing, white-crested waves.

But sometimes the east wind springs from sleep, and then how different is the scene. The gale rushes upon us with all its fury, and the gigantic swell of the Pacific Ocean sweeps upon the little island as if no power on earth could stop its course. Up the high cliffs it mounts, a hundred feet or more, looking like a solid green mountain. Then with a report like thunder it bursts into a mass of snowy foam, and in seemingly baffled rage tosses about great boulders, tons in weight, as if they were so many marbles, and the roar and the rattle of its anger can be heard many miles away.

But most strange and wonderful of all was my experience of an eruption on the island, and one from which, there was no getting away. I had three of my brothers and two sisters staying with me for their holidays. All the men but two had gone to the mainland with the last shipload of sulphur, and would not be back until the steamer called again, which was never any stated time. The two men and I were laying down a steel tram-line from the sulphur platform to the landing place.

The children had been with us about three weeks, and were having* a fine time on the island, when, one morning as we were working away,, we heard the noise of a great explosion. We dropped our tools and ran as fast as we could to where we could get a sight of the crater. The first glance showed us that a

new blow-hole had broken out, and, instead of sending out steam as the others did, it was sending up a straight shoot of red, living ashes. From where we stood (about a mile away) the blow-hole appeared to be about a yard across, and so great was the force with which the ashes were ejected, that for the height of about fourteen hundred feet the column rose like a jet of water, straight as a walking stick far above the cliff, then spread out like the top of a fern tree. As 1 looked the thought flashed through my mind, " that is the way the younger Pliny described Vesuvius as starting when Pompeii was destroyed/ I knew then that this was an eruption. The noise was not so great as at first, but a roaringsound continued, accompanied by sharp percussions. The men were much alarmed, and I was dreadfully anxious about the children. I went to the whare, and found them much astonished at the noise. I told them that the volcano was very active, but that it might only be a blow up, and would most likely go down again soon. "MV eldest sister looked very nervous, but she tried not to show it before the children. I called her aside and told her to pack up everything as soon as possible, so that if the worst came to the worst, we could put to sea at any moment. The men and I went down to tiie boat-house and got out the best whale-boat, then we put into her a keg of water, some provisions, oars, sails, etc., in readiness for a start. I thought it best to keep 'the men working, to prevent them from dwelling on the situation. The position was this : We were forty-five miles from the coast across a strip of water nearly always rough . My two whale-boats had just done a year's rough work, and were leaking in every seam—so far gone were they that two others were being built in Auckland to replace them. The trip across, even in a good boat, well manned, was one that old coasters would

think it madness to try. I had only two men, the weather was bad, and getting worse, and the volcano becoming more and more active every hour. We were all very grave at tea that evening, though we tried hard to think, it would all be over before morning. As soon as it was dark I went across the sulphur flat to get a good view of the new crater. What was my surprise to see all round the new blow-hole red-hot ! I felt something falling on my face like hot soot, and found I was being covered with falling ashes. The noise now was terrific, and had a sort of screeching sound in it. You have heard a large ocean steamer blow down steam, well multiply that by any number you like, and it will give you a faint idea of what this noise was like ! 1 need not tell you that none of us slept that night except the youngsters. We sat up listening to the roaring and screeching all night, and in the morning we found that two new craters had broken out,, and were vomiting stones and ashes to the full height of the mountain. Great clouds of ashes were rushing up into the sky, like bales and bales of dark brown wool. There was now a stiff gale blowing from the south-east, directly from us to the volcano, so that fortunately no ashes came our way. Launchingthe boats in such a sea was out of the question, so we busied ourselves in fixing up the boat-house to live in, as it was more sheltered from the volcano than the whares. We had on the island some hundreds of sleepers (six inches thick), to be used for laying the tramway. With these we covered the boathouse all over, as a further protection from falling- ashes. My sister did some cooking, as she said there was no knowing when we would have to leave, and the children must have food in the boats. About an hour before s/unset the

wind shifted to the west. As soon as it did so the whole mass of brown, billowy ashes began moving towards us. Fully a mile high in the air it passed o.ver our heads, while the ashes fell unpleasantly, it looked .like another brown world travelling swiftly past us, so solid and impenetrable was the cloud. As the wind freshened down came the brown, solid, drifting mass, till it was not more than twenty feet above our heads. The ashes fell quite hot now, amd as thick as sand through a sieve. By and bye the lumps became larger and larger. We plugged up every aperture in the boat-house with empty sacks, but even then could not entirely keep the ashes out.

The children all behaved like little heroes. Poor little Evie, only six years old, when the hot ashes got in her eyes, only called her oat Blacksmith to her, and brushed her eyes with his tail, saying, " Come, Kitty, doctor, and cure my eyes/"

the tears running down her little cheeks all the time with pain.

By this time the island was shaking like a jelly, and the noise sounded right under our feet, resembling the rushing of a thousand trains through a vast tunnel. The night was inky black, the only things which relieved the darkness were the three great glowing eyes which marked the three craters of the volcano.

With these surroundings the awful night wore slowly away, the air so thick as to be almost unbearable. The children were sitting on a mattress bathed in perspiration and black with ashes, until in a huddled heap they fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.

After what seemed an eternity of time, a dull brown light began to creep over the island, and I knew that morning had come, and slept myself.

When I awoke the sum was up, and things did not look so dreadful as by night, "but the eruption showed no sign of abatement. The ssa was now smooth and the wind fair,

so i decided to try and reach the mainland in one of the whale-boats. The boat was ready, so we laiunched her and set forth. It was a beaiutiful morning, a good heave and swell on the water, the sky blue, and the seagulls playing round us as if there was no such thing as an active volcano in existence.

The boat was leaking badly, and some one had to keep bailing most of the time. The children were pitting on a rug in the bottom of the boat, the pet cat on little Evie's lap. Once 1 sa,w the great black fin of a shark come close to my steer- oar. None of the others noticed it except the men, and 1 motioned to them to keep quiet ; it must have glided away, for we saw it no more.

Everything appeared to be going on well ; we were ten miles away, then fifteen, and by three o'clock we were about half-way across. The island was sinking lower and lower into the water, and the mainland began to look closer and closer. If this wind had kept favourable wo would have been in Whakatane harbour by two o'clock the next morning, but unfortunately it changed quite suddenly, and sprang up dead ahead.

There was nothing for it but 10 run back to the island, and away the boat flew with its load of bitterly disappointed hearts.

The wind was freshening all the time, and as the sea got up it took the two men all their time to keej>

the boat free of water. As we neared the island the sight of the eruption was very grand. The whole island looked like a chimney belching forth a volume of smoke and ashes fully three miles in height, and extending away to the horizon. The great feature was the force with which the ashes were ejected.

When we reached the shore it was like trying to face a burning house. The smoke and heat were so great that I had to alter the course of the boat and beach her under a

cliff in a more protected spot. About midnight the wind changed again, and drove the fumes away from the landing-place, so we all got ashore once more. Just then, glancing to seaward, I caught sight of the red light of a vessel. I rubbed my eyes to make sure it was no illusion, but no, there it was still, and now the green light also, showing that she was making straight for the island. Tn great excitement we got so'me empty tat* barrels and fired them to attract attention. As the barrels blamed up

now, the green had disappeared ; the vessel had changed her course and was sailing away from us. At this the poor children broke down completely, and even I felt that we were utterly abandoned. We were in danger of death from two great elements, fire on the one hand, and water on the other. We knew not, from moment to moment, when the quivering island would blow up altogether, and the sea rushing in, claim the spot as its own where once White Island stood.

what a picture the flames threw out ! The great towering cliffs rising grim and black behind us, the little group of eager watchers in the foreground, the cloud of living aslh.es roaring 1 into the sky, and away on the dark waters, two little twinkling lights that meant so much to us. " They see us \" the children cried ; " they are coming nearer." But, no, there was o : nly one light

For some days the wind remained in our favour, but the sea was too rough to attempt to launch a boat. The island became hotter and hotter, and as days went on we could hardly bear to touch even uhe boulders on the beach. The little gray rats, which are peculiar to the place, came out from the cliffs in thousands, and lay dead everywhere, killed by the heat.

One of the craters had built up a

hill of ashes to about a third the height of the island. It used to throw up stones as big as a table, but fortunately none came our way. Fancy all this going on, and we not a mile away ! However, in about a week the craters showed signs of abating. There were times when the noise would stop all of a suddein. One moment there would be roaring and screeching, the next, dead silence, and after the noise the silence seemed terrible and ominous.

one morning we were awakened by the welcome whistle of a steamer. 1 sprang up, and there I saw lying in the bay one of the Union Company's fine steamers. In less than half-an-honr all questions had been asked and answered, the children had been kissed and petted by the astonished passengers, and by next morning we were safely home again. I cannot describe to you what a load of responsibility seemed to roll off my shoulders as 1 set the children on the mainland once more, and I often wonder who will be on White Tsland at the next eruption.

This sort of life went on for nearly a fortnight, in stench and ashes, the earth shaking and the volcano screeching, until just at daybreak