CHAP. XXIV.] EARTHQUAKES. 357 



at its shores was 208-8, and that of the air 53 ; 

 the mean between the latter and that at the level 

 of the sea being taken at 55. 



The Tongariro must be regarded as the centre of 

 the modern volcanic action of the northern island 

 of New Zealand ; but the traditions of the natives 

 have preserved no account of an eruption of any 

 great extent; they however assert that sometimes 

 thin showers of ashes are ejected from it, and are 

 carried by the wind to some distance. They also 

 say that they sometimes see a luminous reflection 

 on the sky over the top of the crater. It is not 

 ascertained whether the group of Tongariro is also 

 the centre of the slight earthquakes which are felt 

 in New Zealand from time to time. They have 

 been experienced at Port Nicholson, at Kawia on 

 the western coast, at Mata-mata in the valley of 

 the Thames, and at Cloudy Bay in the middle island. 

 In Mata-mata the shocks were only felt in the hills, 

 and not in the valley. 



The natives of Taupo and Rotu-Aire, at the base 

 of Tongariro, told me of slight shocks, which pro- 

 ceed from the mountain, and which have occurred 

 from time immemorial, but they have never been 

 sufficiently important to impress a trace on their 

 traditionary legends, unless we assume that some of 

 their myths are records of events which have really 

 happened : such, for instance, as the tale that the 

 two wives of the Tongariro, Pihanga and Hauhun- 



