CHAP. III.] PORT NICHOLSON. 71 



The best harbour for ships is opposite the em- 

 bouchure of the river Hutt, and is formed by the 

 curved peninsula of the western headland. Here 

 they obtain good holding-ground, with great facili- 

 ties for discharging their cargoes, and are protected 

 from the prevailing winds, which are N.W. 200 

 days in the year, and during the remaining days S. 

 and S.E. That the harbour is good and convenient 

 is proved by the fact that more than 200 vessels 

 have entered and cleared it in safety, although the 

 entrance, without the assistance of charts, is some- 

 what difficult, and no care has been taken to erect a 

 lighthouse. The boundary hills, both to the east 

 and west of the basin of Port Nicholson, rise abruptly 

 from the water's edge : but in that peninsular part 

 where the town of Wellington has been founded, 

 there is a strip of flat land at their base, about one- 

 third of a. mile broad, consisting of a soil composed 

 of sand, shells, shingle, and vegetable earth, and ex- 

 tending to the western headland of the harbour, 



that the volcano at Mount Egmont has again burst forth, or that 

 the volcano in the interior has increased in its activity. We 

 should like to learn whether this earthquake was felt in other parts 

 of the island." 



Mount Egmont, as we shall afterwards see, shows no signs of 

 recent activity, and it is more probable that these shocks proceeded 

 along the mountain-chain of the Ruawahine and Tararua from the 

 Tongariro, which mountain and the country surrounding it are 

 the very centre of modern igneous powers. 



Earthquakes, indeed, are often ftlt in the middle island ; the 

 European settlers experienced them at Queen Charlotte's Sound 

 and Te-awa-iti, and a rather severe shock was felt in Cloudy Bay 

 on the 29th of August, 1839. 



