in the Pacific, ^c. 151 



ded as much as thirty feet from places where canoes were 

 accustomed to land.* 



It is to be remembered that throughout this group of islands, 

 earthquakes are of very frequent occurrence, especially at 

 Hawaii, the principal one, and seat of the great volcano of 

 Kilauea, where several occur almost every year. At Hilo, or 

 Byron's Bay, about thirty miles north-east of the crater, dur- 

 ing the month of November, 1838, upwards of fifty shocks 

 were experienced within eight days, and not less than twelve 

 more counted in a single night. There is another active vol- 

 cano in the Vichis, or Fejees, and several more in the islands 

 to the southward and westward of them, nor is it at all im- 

 probable that throughout the entire extent of Polynesia, the 

 internal fires are raging below the ocean's bed, and by their 

 upward forces constantly tending to elevate the existing 

 islands.f 



* Among the evidences of the slow increase of corals, alluded to on page 67, 

 were included through inadvertence, experiments made at long intervals on the 

 dftpth of channels and upon well known reefs. These should be set aside, since 

 it is clear that such depth might be increased or diminished by a subsidence or 

 elevation of the reef, and therefore no correct inference as to the growth of the 

 corals composing it can be drawn from such experiments. 



t Its bearings on this question, the singularity of the phenomena it records, 

 and the limited circulation of the work in which it appears, will, I trust, be 

 deemed sufficient apologies for introducing here the account of an extraordinary 

 oscillation of the sea, published in the Hawaiian Spectator, for January 1838, 

 by T. C. B. Rooke, F. R. C. S., a resident of Honolulu. 



" On the evening and night of the 7th Nov. 1837, a most remarkable commo- 

 tion of the sea was witnessed at Honolulu, in many respects similar to that 

 witnessed at these islands in May, 1819. One inch and a half of rain had 

 fallen during the previous tvventyfoiir hours; the wind was fresh from the. 

 north-east, squally at intervals. The atmosphere was clear and cool, — Therm. 

 74.5. The Barometer had gradually fallen during the four previous days, but 

 this evening had again risen to 30.00, at 6 o'clock, when the alarm was given 

 that the sea was retiring. The first recession wad the greatest, — somethmg 

 more than eight feet; but being unprepared to make observations at tlie mo- 

 ment, the exact fall was not measured. The reefs surrounding the harbor were 

 lefi dry, and the fish aground were mostly dead. The s« a quickly returned, 

 and in twentyeight minutes reached the height of an ordinary high tide ; scarce- 

 ly remaining stationary, it again receded and fell six feel. This was repeated 

 at intervals of twentyeight minutes. On the third rising it wag four inches 

 above ordinary high water mark, and fell again six leet four inches. After the 

 fourth rising, the length of time occupied by the rise and fall varied, and the 



