530 REPORT — 1891. 



The motion evidently was along a line, and at the same time 

 undulating so as to produce this upward motion. . . . Some 

 of the shocks had a cross-motion with a curious grinding sound 

 underground. During one of these the milk in the pans ac- 

 quired a circular motion, so as to accumulate the cream in the 

 centre. 



1855. 23rd January. — This (the backward-and-forward 

 and side-to-side motion) was followed by a continuation of 

 both, a sort of vorticose motion, exactly like the motion felt in 

 an ill-adjusted railway-carriage on a badly-laid railway at a 

 very high speed, where one is swayed rapidly from side to 

 side. This was accompanied by a sensible elevatory im- 

 pulse. It gradually subsided, and the above, constituting 

 the first and greatest shock, lasted altogether, I should 

 say, one minute twenty seconds or one and a half minutes, 

 at Wellington. 



Was the area of activity circular or elliptical, and, if latter, 

 what was the direction of the major axis ? 



1848. — Not stated. Judge Chapman says, "The shocks 

 commenced at north-north-east and perhaps even north by 

 east ; then some were observed to come from north-east and 

 north-east by east, as my house stands ; then from east, and 

 latterly from east to east-south-east. The few that I have 

 noted from south-west I attribute to reverberation or some 

 other deception on the ear and senses." 



1855. — Direction north-east to south-west. 



How many shocks ? Were first or last strongest ? 



1848. (1.) Judge Chapman says, " Taking the whole of the 

 shocks during the five weeks, only four have occurred of suffi- 

 cient force and duration to do damage, though at times as many 

 as fifteen have been counted in an hour, and perhaps more than 

 a hundred and fifty in the twenty-four hours. During the pre- 

 sent month the number of shocks has ranged from two or 

 three to seven or eight a day." (2.) The shocks gradually de- 

 creased in strength. 



1855. — The motion increased in violence, and then gradually 

 subsided. " The earth continued to vibrate all night like the 

 panting of a tired horse, with occasional shocks of some 

 violence, decreasing in freqviency and violence towards morn- 

 ing, and nearly all in the north-east and south-w^est direction ; 

 some of them a single jerk back and forwards like that of one 

 railway-carriage touching another, but generally they were 

 followed by a vibration gradually decreasing." 



Did each shock begin with a gentle, slow motion, followed 

 by rapid or intense motion ? 



