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the same moment the aqueous vapors issue from the rent with such a violence that the water is prevented from penetrating into its recesses.

Whilst this process is in action the water becomes turbid to some distance from the lava, and fish which chance to be in the vicinity are killed.

The masses of lava which are thus protruded into the sea are sometimes of very considerable dimensions. At the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1794, a stream of lava, after destroying the town of Torre del Greco, entered the sea, and drove it back to a distance of three hundred and eighty feet from its former shores. The width of this mass is, according to an exact measurement, twelve hundred and four feet. It is elevated fifteen feet above the sea, and is believed to have an equal depth under water. The lava, therefore, which entered the sea during this eruption, forms a mass of more than thirteen millions of cubic feet. The streams of lava flowing from Mount Vesuvius which have reached the sea are numerous, as may be inferred from the fact that the eastern shores of the Bay of Naples for about ten miles are formed by a succession of promontories composed of lava. The same observation applies to the eastern shores of the Island of Sicily, where the coast for a distance of more than thirty miles consists of high cliffs of lava, with only a few spots between them of low tracts of moderate extent covered with a soil deposited by the sea. At some places these lava cliffs are more than fifty feet high.

In the published accounts of eruptions we find that particular care has been taken to notice the velocity with which the stream of lava advanced. By comparing these statements it is found that the difference in this respect is very great. As an instance in which lava ran with extraordinary rapidity, that of Mount Vesuvius in 1794 may be adduced. This stream of lava took only six hours to run from the spot of the eruption to the sea, a distance of more than four miles. Much greater still was the velocity of that stream which, in 1804, broke out from the southern declivity of Mount Vesuvius. It is said that it moved with the rapidity of wind. In a few minutes it had reached the vineyards; and an author asserts that in four minutes it passed over a space of three-quarters of a mile in length, though the slope over which it ran was very gentle.

Since the commencement of the present century the eruptions of Vesuvius have been frequent, and sometimes of long continuance. During one eruption there was observed a peculiar phenomenon-the vapors issuing from the crater presenting three distinct colors, green, white and black. Another eruption was ushered in by the tumbling down of the principal cone, which had attained a height of upwards of 600 feet. It fell with a dreadful crash, and on the following evening there commenced an eruption which lasted continuously for twelve days. The internal detonations of the mountain were terrific; while the quantity of ashes and other matters thrown out darkened the noon into midnight.

CHAPTER V.

ADVENTURES AMONG STRANGE PEOPLE.

Beautiful Islands Long Veiled in Mystery-The First Voyage Around the WorldZoological Gardens –The Natives of the Pacific Isles-Various Types of Savages-The Remarkable Island of New Zealand-Life Among the Maories Weapons of War-A Fighting Race of Men-An Exciting Episode-Wicked Treachery-Hideous War Dances -Queer Performances of an Old ChiefChildren Imitating the Art of War-Savage Cannibalism-Tragic Death of a Blind Queen -A Chief in War Costume-Witches and Witchcraft-A Native Priest-Huge Wooden Idols - The Sandwich Islands - Beauty of the WomenExpert Swimmers -Extraordinary Feats of Surf-Swimming-The Dagger that Killed Captain Cook--A Splendid Race of Savages-Kamehameha Catching Spears-The Marquesans-Elegant Tattooing--A Chief Decorated from Head to Foot-The Puncturing Needle.

IT is strange to think of the time when the vast tract of water which we call the Pacific Ocean, and which covers nearly half the globe, with all its wonderful and beautiful islands, was unknown to the civilized world. Yet it was only in the year 1513 that its existence was discovered by a Spaniard of the name of Balboa. This brave and patient man made his way, with the utmost toil and peril, on foot, across the isthmus which separates the Atlantic from the Pacific Ocean, and having been assured by his Indian guides that the sea was to be seen from a certain mountain, he climbed it all alone, and, when he reached the top, there sure enough lay the broad ocean on the other side, its calm waters glittering in the sun, and stretching away and awaywho could say where? No wonder that Balboa fell on his knees in the solitude, and thanked God for having guided him to make so great a dis

covery.

When he at last gained the shore on the other side of the mountain, he plunged at once into the water, with his drawn sword in his hand, and took posession of it in the name of his king, Ferdinand of Spain. And that was the beginning of the discoveries of all the treasures and wonders of the Pacific Ocean, with its countless islands and strange inhabi

tants.

Seven years after Balboa's journey, Magellan, a Portuguese, discov ered the straits which now bear his name, and, passing through them, first launched a European ship in the Southern Sea. On he sailed,

across the immense tract of calm, untraversed water, he knew not whither. How amazed the sea-gulls and the flying-fish must have been at the sight of the great strange object, making its way across the blue expanse ! Perhaps they took it for some gigantic bird, with huge white wings and an enormous appetite, and fled in terror. One would think even the little rippling waves themselves must have been astonished at such a new sensation as that of a ship cleaving its way among them.

The First Voyage Around the World.

Magellan discovered the Ladrone, and afterwards the Philippine Islands. His ship, the Victory, performed the first voyage ever made round the world; but the great discoverer himself never received the thanks and praise of his king and country, which he had so justly earned. He was killed by the natives in one of the Philippine Islands. Afterwards various Spanish, Dutch, and British navigators followed Magellan's adventurous course across the waters of the Pacific, and discovered other islands of the Polynesian Group, so named from a Greek word signifying 'many islands." But the most important and extensive discoveries in this region were not made till the latter part of the last century.

It is curious to remember that only some hundred and fifty years ago many lands whose names are now so familiar to us were as unexplored, and, indeed, unknown to the civilized world, as the countries in the moon, if there are such, are now. Many birds and beasts which we may now see any day in the Zoological Gardens had never entered the imagination. of an American. Flowers and creepers now common in our gardens and green-houses were utterly unknown. William Penn would have been as much astonished if he had been shown a kangaroo as we should be now if we met Alice in Wonderland's "Mock Turtle." Our great navigators and explorers have brought many new objects of interest and beauty within our reach, and have added to the comforts and luxuries of our lives in all sorts of ways; but what far more wonderful changes the arrival of the white men and their ships have brought to the new lands themselves, and their more or less savage inhabitants! We have taught them and brought them a thousand good and useful things. It is sad to think that we have also taught them things that are neither good nor usefui, and given them things which can only do them harm.

A Beautiful Island.

Of the many beautiful islands in the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand has perhaps the greatest interest for us. If we look at the globe, we shall see that it is on the other side of the world, still if we could land there to-morrow we should probably feel more as if we were in our own coun

try than we should do if we visited any other part of the world, so completely have Europeans filled it with their own people, plants, and animals, and built towns and villages almost like those in their own land. The climate, too, is in some respects like our own, but warmer and finer, and the atmosphere is clear and bright, and the sky very blue. There is a slight dampness in the air, owing to the water by which it is surrounded, but which keeps the foliage and the grass green and luxuriant.

Of all the islands in the world, New Zealand is surrounded by the largest extent of water. The great Pacific Ocean stretches away in an unbroken sweep, on the east to South America, on the west to Australia, and north and south to the arctic and antarctic regions. The nearest land to it is, on one side the great island of Australia, about a thousand miles off, and on the other the beautiful South Sea Islands, many of whose foundations are so marvelously reared from the depths of the ocean by myriads of tiny coral insects. New Zealand was first discovered in the year 1642, by the famous Dutch navigator Abel Tasman; but the natives would not allow him to go on shore, and nothing was really known about it till Captain Cook landed there, more than at hundred years later.

Captain Cook Among the New Zealanders.

Though so near Australia, it is strangely unlike it in its climate, in its plants and animals, and above all in its natives; for while the Australian aboriginals are one of the lowest of all savage tribes in appearance and mode of life, the Maories of New Zealand, supposed to have come originally from the Malay race, are a fine, intelligent tribe of men, and perhaps, in the condition in which we first found them, the most civilized in their way of living of any savage people. Captain Cook found them living together in villages, in huts made of wood and reeds. They wore clothing woven from the native flax, and dyed with bark, and they made stone weapons, and instruments of various kinds, and cooked their food. They also cultivated the land, and made laws about property, and stored provisions against bad times. Being much given to fighting among themselves, they made forts and defences of the most ingenious kind. Though they had no written language, they had all sorts of songs and proverbs, handed down from generation to generation.

The one great object of a Maori's life is war. In those parts of the world, where missiles, such as bows and arrows or spears are the principal weapons, war becomes a series of skirmishes, each individual trying to conceal himself as much as possible from the enemy, and to deal his own blows without exposing himself to retaliation. But when the weapons