38 Transactions. 
between 10 to 11 a.m. These waves were in each ease followed by smaller 
waves, and the irregularities did not altogether cease for forty-eight hours after 
their first appearance. The exact time at which the three great waves were 
observed, and also their distinguishing features, were modified at different 
points of observation by local peculiarities due to the outline of the land, 
the depth of the water, the exposure of the coast line to the direction in 
which the wave reached the shore, and lastly to the local time of tide. 
The intervals between the smaller oscillations appear to have been 
generally remarked at from fifteen to thirty minutes, and to have gradually 
declined in extent and frequency until the next great wave supervened. 
The earliest notice of the wave which we have recorded—beyond 
allusions to an extremely high tide the previous evening—was at Kaiapoi, 
where it was reported that at 3 a.m., the tide having ebbed for two hours, a 
wave four feet in height rushed up the Waimakariri River, and swept the 
vessels which were lying at the wharf from their moorings. This was at a 
distance of four miles from the mouth of the river. 
At Lyttelton and Pigeon Bay the time reported was at least half an 
hour later, and for the other places no exact time is reported for the 
occurrence of the first wave, while at several localities it appears to have 
escaped observation. 
From this time until 7.30 o’clock only lesser waves were remarked, but 
about that hour a great disturbance seems to have been observed at all the 
stations, being described at the Bluff as a terrific rush of water; at 
Kaiapoi, sweeping up a line of breakers which would have been disastrous 
to the town had it not passed up the south branch ; and almost simultaneously 
at Nelson as having caused a reflux of the tide, at that time half-ebbed, so 
that it rose beyond the limits of high watermark, and flowed ‘into the 
harbour over the Boulder Bank. 
A third great rush of water appears to have been everywhere dis- 
tinguished from the smaller oscillations, which went on continuously, the 
time being variously stated from 10 to 12 o'clock, there being great 
irregularity in the hour reported. 
In this harbour (Wellington), where I caused exact observations to be 
taken at frequent intervals—as might be expected from the wide expanse of 
water, and the narrow entrance—these waves could not be so clearly distin- 
guished as on more exposed parts of the coast, but there is a general agree- 
ment among all the observations taken at the different stations which leads 
to the above conclusions. 
_ In the diagram (Plate I.) it has been endeavoured to reduce to an 
 intelligible form the observations which were made at different parts of 
the coast; but from tl rin which the observations were recorded, it 
