350 Transactions. — Geology. 



Approaching, now, to the date of the eruption, we find that 

 there was a heavy rain for the great part of the 9th June, which 

 cleared up towards evening. The wind on the night of the 9th 

 was southerly, changing during the eruption to the south-west, 

 from which direction it blew hard until 4 a.m., when it dropped. 

 At Auckland, Gisborne, Waikato, and Lichfield the wind was 

 sotith-west. Major Scannell, who saw the outburst fromTaupo, 

 says that when he first beheld the cloud of ashes, it was moving 

 south and east, but a sharp south wind sprang up about 3 

 o'clock and carried the cloud westward and northward. 



Phenomena observed at the Outburst. 



The amount of information which has been recorded as to 

 the actual outburst is very considerable, but all through there 

 appears to be a want of exactness as to the times and order of 

 occurrence of the phenomena observed, a very natural result of the 

 excitement and confusion into which people would be thrown by 

 occurrences which threatened their very existence. But the 

 best accounts obtainable seem to place the first signs of any- 

 thing extraordinary happening, at about 1 a.m. on the 10th 

 June, 1886, when slight earthquake shocks were felt by the 

 people at Wairoa, and at Eotorua, (accompanied at the latter 

 place by rumbling noises,) which appear to have been con- 

 tinued as earth-tremors till 2 a.m., or past. At 2.10 or 2.20 

 the rumbling noise had become a continuous and fearful roar, 

 accompanied by a heavy shock of earthquake ; and at this same 

 time, or immediately afterwards, an enormous cloud of smoke 

 and vapour was observed from Wairoa, rising over the hills 

 which shut in that village from a clear view towards Tarawera 

 Mountain, the outside edges and fi'inges of the difterent masses 

 of which were outlined by vivid flashes of electricity, darting 

 through the cloud and colouring it most brilliantly and beauti- 

 fully. This electric display was accompanied by a rustling or 

 crackling noise, which appears to have been heard above the 

 deafening roar, and which is probably the same noise as is heard 

 in electric discharges of an artificial kind, and also probably the 

 same as is heard sometimes at great auroral displays. This 

 heavy shock of earthquake is doubtless the same as that 

 reported at Maketu at 2.30, Tanranga 2 a.m., and Makarewa- 

 rewa at 2.30. It was noted by two observers, (Messrs. Blytlie 

 and Grreenlees,) that from 2.30 onwards severe shocks occurred 

 at regular ten-minutes' intervals up to 3.30. The latter gentle- 

 man had the presence of mind to observe, from the swinging of 

 a ham, that the shocks came from the direction of Tarawera.^ 

 It is probable that the eruption of Tarawera first took place in 

 any strength at about 1.45 a.m. As described by Mr. McRae, 

 who saw it from the oM Mission Station, soon after the out- 

 burst, three columns of fire and flame (or probably the glare 



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