106 . “REPORT—1858. 
shaken off: this range, particularly its lower portion, appeared to have been the most 
shaken. It is called the Rimatuka Range, and divides Port Nicholson and the basin of 
the Hutt from the Warumrapa Valley, where the earthquake was felt with greater violence 
than at Wellington, the ground haying opened in many places 8 or 9 feet, and sunk in one 
place for 300 yards square to a depth of 8 or 9 feet. ‘The cracks are very frequent, and 
at first were of considerable depth (deemed unfathomable, because people could not see 
their depth), perhaps 15 or 20 feet in depth, and extending for many hundred yards. 
Ploughed ground and mud, dry river- or pond-beds were thrown up into all sorts of un- 
dulations like a short cross sea, the ridges in some cases 2 feet in height, the prevailing 
direction of cracks and ridges being generally at right angles to the apparent line of force, 
N.E. 8.W. The strata about Wellington and the Rimatuka are a sort of shale and clay- 
slate, all broken into pieces not bigger than road-metal, with yellow clay joints ; and in 
places where the overlying clay has been cut through by roads, one can see the cracks 
caused by former earthquakes filled up by a different-coloured material. I should mention 
the great sea-wave which came in immediately after the first shock, about 5 feet higher than 
the highest tide inside the harbour, and 12 feet higher outside; the tide (¢. ¢. water-surface) 
continued ebbing and flowing every 20 minutes during the night, and was most irregular 
for a week, ebbing further than ever known before. After that time it became more regular ; 
and now the ebb and flow is the same as before the earthquake; but since that, it does not 
come at high-water within 3 or 4 feet of its former height, proving that the whole south- 
ern part of the northern island has been raised, the elevated portion commencing at 
Wangarner, on the west coast, and going round to Castle Point on the east, where it 
terminates. The vertical elevation is greatest at the Rimatuka Range, outside Port Nichol- 
son, and becomes zz/ at the above-mentioned points. The shock was felt at Nelson 
almost as badly as at Wellington, slightly at Canterbury and Aburii. It was most violent 
on the sides of hills at those places, and least so in the centre of the alluvial plains. 
“The great shock continued at any one point longer, the further it had diverged from its 
apparent centre of action opposite Wellington, and became less violent, the motion being 
slower and notto such anextent. This I think plainly proves (if any thing were wanting to 
prove) Mr. Mallet’s wave theory: any person of the slightest perception experiencing the 
shock and comparing the statements of persons who had felt it in different places could 
come to no other conclusion. I do not think the thermometer or barometer was affected ; 
T had no opportunity of observing myself; but so I heard; nor was the compass acted on 
more than was due to the motion. 
‘The captain of the vessel I went in to Ahurii was outside Port Nicholson, lying-to in a 
gale, and thought his vessel had struck, and was dragging over a reef of rocks; the next 
morning he passed hundreds of dead fish all of one sort, a species of ling, whose habit it is 
to lie on the bottom. The shock was also felt by the ‘ Josephine Willis,’ 150 miles off the 
coast. I only regret, time and want of means prevented my making more accurate obser- 
vations, and even giving you those I did make in greater detail. W. C. B.” 
[The direction of primary shock mentioned by the writer is in the line of the mountain- 
chain, reaching from the interior down to Wellington, and also in that pointing to Ton- 
guro and other volcanic cones.—R.M. ] 
No. III, 
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EARTHQUAKES. 
At the period of publication of the Second Report on Earthquakes, it was 
my intention to have prepared a complete Bibliography of Earthquakes, the 
want of some such index having been much felt by myself, at former periods, 
Subsequently, however, I found that my friend, Professor Perrey, of Dijon, 
had had such a work in progress for some years; and he has since published 
his Bibliographical Catalogues in the ‘ Mémoires de l’Académie Imp. de Dijon,’ 
vols, xiv. and xy. 2nd ser., for 1855-56, which contained, in alphabetical 
order, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven different works on Seis- 
mology. Even yet, however, the store of literature in this speciality are not 
completely taken stock of. Ihave hence deemed it best simply to publish, 
in the following lists, such works as I have found in the several European 
libraries named at the head of cach separate list, along with one in which 
works, that from various sources haye met my eye, are collected. The ma- 
terials thus given will be, I should hope, of some present service to scientific 
—— >. we 
