A VOLCANIC ERUPTION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10062, 2 February 1909, Page 4

A VOLCANIC ERUPTION.

(Pep. Pr.Ess Association.) Christehureh. February 1. Dr Temp, st Anderson, F.R.G.S., of Yotk. I-inJ.mi. who was among those who •e .-r.tly vL-it-d the West Coast ftninds in ! i .-■ Waikaie. passed through l.yttelton on ■vi:iir.lay on his way to the North Island th -rmal r--J-uis. Dr Anderson is a gcolo-:.-t. an exp.-i t in seismic matters, and. .hove all, .i v.i'/aiin man. though primarily a medical practitioner. He was cent !y the Royal' Society of Groat Britain to ronort upon the volcano of Mont iVlee. which in 1302 destroy-.! the town ..f St. Pierre. The party reached Martinique about two months after the eruption, and wore among the first to see the phenomenon which Ins marked out that eruption as distinct from every other of which there is any record. An almost incredible story went the rounds, shortly after the eruntioii had ceased, to the effect that a great needle of stone, about 200 yards in diameter, had forced itself up in the centre of the crater and was in motion. The report stated that the huge pillar moved both up and down and from side to side, and the phenomenon appeared inexpli. able. Dr Anderson explained the strange affair by saying that the column was apparently a cylindrical 6pindlc- M lava forced up through the throat of the ..rater in a semi-solid condition. It rose for a long time without appreciable speed, hut bein ' only half-set, huge lumps of it were from time to time blown off. Coupled with the difficulty of observation, the steady rise and intermittent breaking down of the pinnacle of rock would sufficiently account for the report of its irregular motion. The "wobbling" would then be clearly enough due to one side breaking away more than the other. One nartr actually saw the pinnacle with a sloping face on one side, and photographed it so. and another view, obtained a fewdays later, showed the slope on the opposite side of the pinnacle. Photographs taken from the sea level showed the remarkable piece of rock standing some distance above the Tim of the crater. Dr Anderson visited the volcano again about 13 mouths ago. and was able to see the ronnded top of the pinnacle, which then more resembled a plug in the middle of the basin of the crater. " Other volcanoes had very likely displayed a similar feature, but" either because" there was no one to see it. or because if if was seen no ope recorded it, nothing was now known of it. Such an appendage to certain other volcanoes would account for features in them that could not easily be explained otherwise.