Pond and Smith. — On the Eruption of Mt. Tarawera. 351 



reflected on the vapour from lava below) were shooting upward 

 from the flat plateau-Uke summit of the mountain to an immense 

 height, with flashes of electricity darting forth in all directions, 

 accompanied by balls of fire, some of which fell at great dis- 

 tances, indeed as far off as the Wairoa village, some 8 miles 

 from the seat of eruption. Small stones now began to fall, as 

 the great black cloud which had formed over the mountain 

 worked towards the west, to be quickly followed by a downpour 

 of mud and water and heavy stones, which battered down many 

 of the houses in the village. The mud appears to have fallen 

 in the form of an exceedingly heavy rain, with sometimes large 

 lumps of mud, and this continued up till 6 a.m. All this time, 

 there appears to have been a more or less strong odour of 

 sulphur experienced by the people at Wairoa ; and Mr. Blythe 

 describes a hot suffocating blast, which nearly choked himself 

 and Miss Hasard, after their escape fi'oni the burning house, 

 and which warmed them through. 



Soon after the first outburst, and before the fall of the first 

 stones, a great wind arose, which rushed in the direction of the 

 point of eruption with great force, and was most bitterly cold. 

 It is noticeable that the people who survived, and were nearest 

 to the seat of the eruption, viz., those at the Wairoa, failed to 

 hear the loud detonations which reached Auckland and other 

 places. Probably the loud and continuous roar drowned the 

 louder reports. 



These explosions were heard at Hamilton, Cambridge, Lich- 

 field, Coromandel, Te Aroha, Wanganui, Tauranga, Maketu, 

 Taupo, Christchurch, Wellington, Nelson, Blenheim, Whaka- 

 tane, Opotiki, Auckland, New Plymouth, Whangarei, and Helens- 

 ville, and sounded like the reports of distant cannon, or — as has 

 been described by a large number of people from different 

 places — like some one banging an iron tank. The flashes of the 

 electric display were distinctly seen here in Auckland, a distance 

 of 120 miles in a straight line from Tarawera. The immense 

 cloud of ashes, mud, and sand which was shot high up into 

 the air darkened the sky till long after daylight should have 

 appeared. It is stated that it was quite dark at Eotorua till 

 7.yO, (the ashes commenced falling there at 4 a.m.,) and again 

 at 9 a.m. ; at Opotiki till 10 a.m., at Tauranga till 9 a.m. ; at 

 Te Puke it is said to have been dark as late as 2 p.m. on the 

 10th ; at Maketu till 10 a.m. ; the ashes beginning to fall there 

 at 5.30 a.m. The height to which the mass of light ashes was 

 ejected must have been enormous. Professor Verbeek, who was 

 appointed by the Dutch Government to report on and describe 

 the eruption of Krakatoa in May and August, 1883, states that 

 the column of steam arose from that eruption to a height of 

 60,000 feet, or over 9 miles. The dark cloud of dust and ashes 

 from Tarawera must have been nearly as high as this column of 



