Professor Logan Lobley, who is here, can, I think, give us some interesting remarks on the geological aspect of the country. (The photographic slides were then exhibited on the screen.) Professor LOGAN LOBLEY, F.G.S.-I am much obliged to you for the honour you have done me in asking me to take part in the discussion at so early a period of the evening. I must congratulate the Institute on setting the example to other Societies by inviting a lady to read a paper on a scientific subject. I would also congratulate the author on giving us a most interesting and valuable paper respecting a district of such great physical interest. The volcanic district of New Zealand, both of North Island and South Island, is very remarkable in one respect. I have in my mind compared the Rotorua district and the similarity with the Phlegrean fields of Italy and that district with a portion of the surface of the moon; but there is a distinct difference between the aspect of the surface of the Rotorua district and that of the Phlegrean fields. They are both volcanic; but in the Italian district, as all those know who have been to Italy, there is a preponderance of crater features, while in the Rotorua district that preponderance of craters is less conspicuous. That, I think, is entirely due to the fact of the great preponderance of acidic rocks in the New Zealand area, which gives such large deposits of pumaceous ejectamenta and of siliceous sinter from the boiling springs, and this interferes very much with the crater-like character of the area. There is another point that has never been noticed, as far as I am aware, and it is of great interest, namely, the long continuance of volcanic action on the New Zealand area, the volcanic action of the Neapolitan volcanic and those of Sicily and the Lipari islands. All those volcanic hills and craters have had their origin within the Pliocene period; whereas the volcanic action has continued in New Zealand from before Tertiary times; for the newest volcanic rocks of the South Island are overlaid by Tertiary rocks; so that we have evidence of a very long continuance of volcanic action in the New Zealand region which continues into the present time. This volcanic action, in one part of this paper, is said to be scarcely a true volcanic action because there was no lava in the eruption of 1886. But it does not follow at all that the action is not truly volcanic because there is no lava. Many of the greatest eruptions that have taken place in the world have been entirely devoid of lava flows. The great eruption of A.D. 79, which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum, was entirely without lava, and the recent West Indian eruptions were entirely destitute of lava flows. These are explosive eruptions in which the whole of the lava has been converted into fragmentary ejectamenta. So that the absence of lava is no indication of want of true volcanic action. * The fact of these eruptions in New Zealand being chiefly explosive and without lava-flows is due, I think, to the fact that the rocks are chiefly acidic (or siliceous) and to there being a great access of water to the rising lava, and so converting the whole into ejectamenta of a dry solid character which otherwise, without a sufficient amount of water, would have partly flowed away in liquid lava. There are a great many points that are suggestive of remark, but I will not occupy your time further. The CHAIRMAN.-I think we have a gentleman here who has been to the Lipari Islands, Mr. Narlian. · The last Mr. NARLIAN. What I have seen of the photographs reminds me very much that all the formations I have seen are very much like what we have had at Nilcano. Again, as the Professor has observed, in all acidic formations there is an absence of lava-flow. great eruption we had was absolutely devoid of all lava-flow. The vapour and fumes were highly charged with electricity, and the column ejected might have been 15,000 feet as well as we could measure. Of course it was not all charged with water, but the shaft and small bits perhaps of rock went up, in many cases, 15,000 feet. Estimating the height of the mountain from the level of the sea, and taking the proportion of the column ejected from the crater, I could not take it under that measure. Some of the great boulders ejected were a good deal more than the size of this room, and were ejected to a distance of 1 or 1 miles, and a great many of them have been spread over the island. I believe in other cases, also, a terrace-like formation is found. "Volcanic action and the West Indian eruptions of 1892," Trans. Vict. Inst., vol. xxxv, p. 214 (1903), also the same subject by Prof. J. W. Spencer, ibid., p. 198. The SECRETARY.-Have some of those terraces been raised out of the sea ? Mr. NARLIAN.-No; from the sea the formation of the mountain is very abrupt something like, perhaps, 45 degrees. The SECRETARY.-I think I ought to join, with Professor Logan Lobley and yourself, sir, in expressing our obligation to Miss Boord for this exceedingly interesting and graphic paper which she has read before us. She has given us an account of the phenomena she witnessed in this wonderful island, in a clear, lucid and agreeable manner, and I could see from the manner in which the audience were following her in the paper that they were all very much interested in her observations. We, in this happy island of ours, are not so favoured as some other countries in regard to recent volcanic phenomena, though we have grand representatives of extinct volcanic action. We have no eruptions from craters, no geysers and very seldom any earthquakes that we are conscious of; so that we are dependent on travellers to Iceland, Yellowstone Park, the Lipari Islands, the West Indies and other regions of the globe for accounts of these grand operations of nature; the results of heat and moisture acting with tremendous force through the agency of steam, producing wonderful effects at the time and leaving their marks for many a day afterwards. We are, therefore, indebted to those who bring us information and produce before us pictures and photographs of the phenomena they have seen like those exhibited here to-day, and which, after all, though beautifully representative, yet fall very far short indeed of the phenomena themselves as seen in nature. For these reasons I think we are very much indebted to Miss Boord for her paper. The CHAIRMAN having put the vote of thanks to the Meeting, which was carried unanimously, Miss BOORD, through the Chairman, thanked the Meeting for the manner in which her paper had been received, and the proceedings terminated. ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING.* COLONEL GEORGE MACKINLAY, LATE R.A., IN THE CHAIR. The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. The following elections were announced :— : OBSERVATIONS ON IRRIGATION WORKS IN INDIA. By C. W. ODLING, Esq., M.Inst.C.E., C.S.I. IT T is possible that some of those, whom I have the honour of addressing this evening, have lived in India for a longer or shorter period. In that case a portion of my remarks may be superfluous, but I think it will be wise for me to assume that the acquaintance of my audience with India is limited to what they may have read in books or newspapers or heard from friends. To begin with, I may say that the overwhelming importance of irrigation in India is due to the liability of that country to famines. The famine of 1897 and 1898 attracted much attention in England, and large sums were raised by private generosity for the relief of our fellow-subjects in India. This famine, which commenced in the winter of 1897, has only lately come to an end, relief works in the Central Provinces having ceased in 1903. In that famine, food was always procurable at a somewhat high price, but the people who had lost their crops were unable to purchase it, as they had not the wherewithal to do so. At the time, I was residing in what are now called the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, and I do not think that, in those Provinces, any deaths occurred owing to relief not being procurable. Severe privation was widespread and unavoidable, and unfortunately many persons did not seek * Monday, 22nd February, 1904. relief in time. The lesson taught by the Orissa famine of 1866 had resulted in the State fully accepting, in principle, the obligation to provide, in times of famine, the means of supporting life. In other words, to maintain relief works, where wages sufficient for subsistence could be earned, and to give gratuitous relief where necessary. This obligation has, I believe I can rightly say, been acted up to. Owing, however, to the experience gained in this famine and to the labours of a Commission, of which that distinguished official, Sir Antony Macdonnell, now Under Secretary of State for Ireland, was President, I have no doubt that in future famines the management will be more efficient, as regards relief, and more economical in the expenditure to be incurred. My own recollections extend as far back as to the Orissa famine of 1866, in which I am sorry to say that three-quarters of a million of people perished, the greater number of starvation pure and simple. That famine formed my introduction to India, and a very doleful introduction it was. The crops had failed and means of communication, by which sufficient food could be speedily brought into the country, did not exist. Even the road from Calcutta to Cuttack, the capital of Orissa, was unmetalled, and this road is intersected by numerous large rivers which were unbridged. Things are different now. Cuttack is connected with Calcutta, about 250 miles distant, by a railway which extends to Madras. There are two navigable canals, passing from Cuttack to the seaboard, and there is inland water communication, mainly by canals, but partly by rivers and tidal creeks, between Calcutta and Cuttack. In speaking of the canals between Cuttack and the coast, I may advert to the rise of the port of Chandbally, which, when I first saw it, in the year 1867, was a small fishing village with a few mud huts. After the Orissa famine of 1866, a Scotch captain, who had an interest in a small steamer, the Celt, which at one time plied on the Clyde, explored the Orissa coast to see if he could find a harbour sufficient to admit a vessel of light draught entering it. Eventually he found that he could navigate the River Dhamrah for 20 miles from the sea to Chandbally, whence Cuttack, 60 miles distant, could be reached by road and other nearer places by rivers or creeks. The result of this exploration was, that in five years, there were three separate lines of steamers running between Calcutta and Chandbally. Up to the time of the opening of the railway, in-so-far as I remember 1900, the usual method of reaching Cuttack, from Calcutta, was by sea to Chandbally and thence to Cuttack by canal. |