A GREAT SEA-WAVE. 211 



seem fully sufficient to account for so wide a range of 

 difference. Possibly a cause yet unnoticed may have 

 had something to do with the peculiarity. In waves 

 of such enormous extent, it would be quite impossible 

 to determine whether the course of the wave-motion 

 was directed full upon a line of shore or more or less 

 obliquely. It is clear that in the former case the 

 waves would seem to follow each other more swiftly 

 than in the latter, even though there were no difference 

 in their velocity. 



Far on beyond the shores of New Zealand the great 

 wave coursed, reaching at length the coast of Australia. 

 At dawn of August 14, Moreton Bay was visited by 

 five well-marked waves. At Newcastle, on the Hunter 

 River, the sea rose and fell several times in a remark- 

 able manner, the oscillatory motion commencing at 

 half-past six in the morning. But the most significant 

 evidence of the extent to which the sea-wave travelled 

 in this direction was afforded at Port Fairy, Belfast, 

 South Victoria. Here the oscillation of the water was 

 distinctly perceived at midday on August 14 ; and yet, 

 to reach this point, the sea-wave must not only have 

 travelled on a circuitous course nearly equal in length 

 to half the circumference of the earth, but must have 

 passed through Bass's Straits, between Australia and 

 Van Diemen's Land, and so have lost a considerable 

 portion of its force and dimensions. When we re- 

 member that had not the effects of the earth-shock on 

 the water been limited by the shores of South America, 

 a wave of disturbance equal in extent to that which 



p 2 



