in the Pacific, S^c. 153 



which has been elevated about two hundred feet, lying some 

 thirty leagues from Tahiti, in a N. N. E. direction. This 

 island presents a perpendicular wall on all sides but the north- 

 east, where it slopes rather steeply to the water. The greater 

 portion of this wall has no attached reef, and rises abruptly 

 from the ocean, which at one hundred yards distance is per- 

 fectly blue ; but there are occasionally crescent-shaped tracts 

 of low land between the sea and base of the cliff, which pre- 

 vious to the elevation of the island may have formed small 

 bays, and from these extends a narrow coral plateau. At the 

 inland termination of these plains, is a large talus composed 

 of massy fragments fallen from the cliff, in all probability 

 ruins of the anciently projecting shelf. Their whole surface 

 is worn by the water into deep inequalities, so sharp and rug- 



those who escaped with their lives had neither food nor raiment left. In Ka- 

 nokapa and Kaahelu alone, sixtysix houses were destroyed, and eleven persons 

 lost their lives; four men, two women, and five children; at Waiolama and 

 Hauna, a woman and child were drowned ; at Kauwal-; one woman lost her 

 life. The amount of damage done has not yet been ascertained, nor is it known 

 how many times the sea rose and fell. There was no shock of an earthquake 

 felt at Hilo, or elsewhere, although it is ascertained that the volcano of Kilauea 

 was unusually disturbed the previous evening, the fires were suddenly quenched, 

 and yawning chasms burst open in previously tranquil places, accompanied with 

 violent explosions= Inquiries have been made of masters of vessels who were 

 to the north and to the east of the islands on the 7th, at various distances, but 

 none of them noticed any thing unusual in the sea, or atmosphere. That this 

 apparent submarine volcanic action has taken place at some distance from the 

 islands is proved by the wave striking the different islands simultaneously and 

 apparently in the same direction ; but at what distance we have no means at 

 present of determining. Perhaps the internal fires have found a new vent, 

 which may be laying the foundation of a new group of islands in our neighbor- 

 hood. It is now nineteen and a half years since a similar phenomenon oc- 

 curred here, but not so violently as the last, nor was it attended with any loss 

 of life." 



Cases of the sea during earthquakes retiring for a short time to retirn with 

 overwhelming force, are but too familiar matter of history. Such are the wave 

 which utterly destroyed old Callao in 1746; that witnessed during the great 

 earthquake of Lisbon, and more recently, in those which have been attended 

 with such fearful consequences along the coast of Chili ; but I am not aware 

 that there is on record any parallel to such a series of alternating ebb and flow 

 of the sea, unaccompanied by any perceptible commotion of the earth, as is 

 here described by Dr. Rooke. That it was nevertheless occasioned by the 

 throes of pent up subterranean fires at some remote point, there can I think be 

 little question. 



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