NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 855 



Mr. Wilkinson also exhibited samples of the Volcanic Ash from, 

 and photographs of the country about, Tarawera, New Zealand, 

 taken a few days after the eruptions ; in connection with which 

 Mr. Wilkinson remarked that he considered that these thermal 

 eruptions, which were described by Professor Stephens at the last 

 Monthly Meeting of the Society, were primarily caused by move- 

 ments in the earth's crust, along an old N. E. and S. W. line of 

 disturbance. The numerous earthquakes would seem to show that 

 New Zealand has been frequently affected by earth-movements, 

 and judging from the numerous earthquake shocks experienced in 

 Tasmania last year, Mr. Wilkinson suggested that they had been 

 increased by the pressure upon the earth's crust of an unusual 

 accumulation of snow and ice within the Antarctic Regions. He 

 thought it not improbable that the moisture in the atmosphere, 

 which did not fall during the past five years upon Australia as it 

 normally does, passed overhead and was precipitated further to the 

 south within the Antarctic Regions. Otherwise what has become of 

 the moisture which should have fallen here as rain during the 

 long season of drought through which we have just passed 1 In 

 the Glacial Epoch, when there was a vast accumulation of snow 

 and ice in the northern hemisphere, very great movements occurred 

 in the earth's crust. If the explanation offered be correct, it is 

 possible that more earthquakes may be shortly experienced. 



