The Volcanic Rocks of Christmas Island, (Indian Ocean)

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Abstract
Christmas Island occupies a very isolated position in the eastern part of the Indian Ocean in lat. 10° 25′ S.. long. 105° 42′ E. The nearest land is Java, 190 miles away to the north; a little south of west, at a distance of about (650 miles, are the Islands of Cocoa and North Keeling; while the nearest point on the Australian mainland is 900 miles distant on tlie south-east. The greatest length of the island is 12 miles, and its greatest width 9. It forms the flat top of a submarine mountain, the base of which is 14,400 feet below sea-level and its summit about 1000 feet above. The slopes of this mountain are steep, depths of 1100 feet being found less than 4 miles out, and the base, 14,400 feet, being within 20 miles of the coast of the island. The slopes of the upper part are nearly alike on all sides, and are about 2 in 5 [1, p. 295]. A scientific exploration of the island was made by the late Dr. C. W. Andrews in 1897–98, the late Sir John Murray defraying the cost of the expedition and presenting the collections. to the British Museum (Natulral History). These collections were the subject of an important monograph published in 1900, to which Dr. Andrews contributed chapters on the physical features and geology [1], and it is from these that the following brief outline of the geological history of the island is taken. Dr. Andrews showed that the

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