dangerous
coral reefs, and though the soil is deep and very fertile, there is a
great lack of flowing water; running streams are almost unknown. Most of
the islands consist of coral and are very low; the highest point of
Tongataboo is only about sixty feet above the level of the sea.[1]
However, some of the islands are lofty and of volcanic formation. When
Captain Cook visited the islands in 1773 and 1777 there was apparently
only one active volcano in the archipelago; it was situated in the small
island of Tufoa, which lies to the west of Namuka. Cook saw the island
smoking at the distance of ten leagues, and was told by the natives that
it had never ceased smoking in their memory, nor had they any tradition
of its inactivity.[2] In the hundred and fifty years which have elapsed
since Cook's time volcanic action has greatly increased in the
archipelago. A considerable eruption took place at Tufoa in 1885: the
small but lofty island of Kao (5000 feet high) has repeatedly been in
eruption: the once fertile and populous island of Amargura, or
Funua-lai, in about 18 deg. South latitude, was suddenly devastated in 1846
or 1847 by a terrific eruption, which reduced it to a huge mass of lava
and burnt sand, without a leaf or blade of grass of any kind. Warned by
violent earthquakes, which preceded the explosion, the inhabitants
escaped in time to Vavau. The roar of the volcano was heard one hundred
and thirty miles off; and an American ship sailed through a shower of
ashes, rolling like great volumes of smoke, for forty miles. For months
afterwards the glare of the tremendous fires was visible night after
night in the island of Vavau, situated forty miles away.[3] Another
dreadful eruption occurred on the 24th of June 1853, in Niua Fooeu, an
island about two hundred miles to the north-north-west of Funua-lai. The
entire island seems to be the circular ridge of an ancient and vast
volcano, of which the crater is occupied by a lake of clear calm water.
On the occasion in question the earth was rent in the centre of a native
village; the flames of a new volcano burst forth from the fissure,
belching a sea of molten lava, under which ten miles of country, once
covered with the richest verdure, have been encased in solid rock,
averaging from eight to fifteen feet in thickness. The lake boiled like
a cauldron, and long after the more powerful action of the volcano had
ceased, the waters of the lake were often rent by tongues of flame