153 Couthouy on Coral Formations 



Before closing these imperfect reminiscences, a few remarks 

 may be added, respecting Matea, or Aurora Island, a coral reef 



rise and fall diminished gradually, but not regularly. At 11, P. M. the Ther- 

 mometer stood at 74, Barometer 30.04 ; wind freshening and frequent showers; 

 the ebb now occupied twenty minutes, and the flow ten. At 11.30 it became 

 calm with constant rain. Thermometer 73.5 ; Barometer 30.03. The ebb and 

 flow still continued, occupying the same space of time, but the rise and fall 

 decreasing. This continued during the forenoon of the 8th. The rapidity with 

 which the water fell, varied in different parts of the harbor. On the east side, 

 the greatest rapidity noticed was six inches in a minute; but on the north, at 

 one time during the third recession it fell twelve inches in thirty seconds. At 

 no time did the water rise higher than a common spring tide; but the fall was 

 about six feet below low water mark. The same occurrence is related ta have 

 taken place in 1819, when the tide rose and fell thirteen times in the space of 

 a few hours. On neither occasion was there any perceptible motion or trem- 

 bling of the earth, or unusual appearance of the atmosphere. 



On the leeward side of Maui the same rise and fall took place as at Honolulu, 

 but on the windward part of the island the sea retired about twenty fathoms and 

 quickly returned in one gigantic wave sweeping every thing before it, bouses, 

 trees, canoes, and every moveable object exposed to its fury. At a small vil- 

 lage, called Kahului, in the district of Wailuku, on the sea retiring, the amazed 

 inhabitants followed it as it receded, eagerly catching the stranded fish, shouting 

 and hallooing with pleasure, when suddenly the sea rose perpendicularly before 

 them like a precipice, and rushing to the beach, buried the assembled multitudes 

 in the flood, and overflowing the shore, swept away every house in the village 

 but one; the canoes and property of the natives were all destroyed. Happily, 

 owing to the amphibious education of the people, but two lives were lost here, 

 but as the same occurrence happened all along the seaside we shall probably 

 hear of more deaths. 



At Byron's Bay, on Hawaii, the same phenomenon took place. An unusual 

 number of persons were collected together attending a protracted meeting, con- 

 sequently every house was crowded. At half-past 6 the sea retired at the rate 

 of four or five knots an hour, reducing the soundings from five to three and a 

 half fathoms at the anclwrage, and leaving a great extent of the harbor dry. 

 Hundreds of curious souls rushed down to witness the novelty, whea a gigantic 

 wave came ro'iring to the shore at the rate of six or eight knots an hour, rising 

 twenty feet above high water maik, and fell on the beach with a noise resem- 

 bling a heavy peal of thunder, burying the people in the flood, destroying 

 houses, canoes, and fish-jionds, washing away the food and clothing of the in- 

 habitants, large quantities of animals, fire wood, and timber collected on the 

 strand for sale. The cries of distress were horrible; those in the water unable 

 to swim among the wreck of houses, and pieces of timber, struggling for their 

 lives, and those on shore wailing for their friends and relatives. The British 

 whale ship Admiral Cockburn was at anchor in the Bay, and to the timely aid 

 and humane exertions of her master, (Lawrence,) and crew, many are indebted 

 for their lives; but for the assistance rendered by their boats many who were 

 stunned and insensible would have been carried out to sea, and perished, as the 

 natives had not a single canoe left that would float. Every thing was destroyed ; 



