326 Essays. 
did not refer to the numerous earthquakes by which this group of islands 
has been visited. 
It may be decidedly assumed that there are certain long lines, or seg- 
ments of circles, along which, either from the weakness of the earth's erust 
or from other causes, voleanie eruptions are most prevalent, and the action 
of subterranean forces is prominently shown by earthquake shocks. 
The New Zealand group is situated on one of these lines, the southern 
known limit of which is the land where Mounts Erebus and Terror raise 
their lofty voleanie peaks amidst Antarctic snow and ice. From these 
mountains the trend of the curve may be said to pass through New Zealand 
and other oceanic isles to New Guinea (appearing to conform to the shape 
of the eastern coast of Australia), and thence through a long chain of eastern 
islands to the Straits of Sumatra. The experience of twenty-four years is 
insufficient to form very decided opinions on the character or locality of the 
earthquakes of New Zealand. Nor indeed is there sufficient knowledge of | 
the causes at work to be able to predict where or when an earthquake may 
break out. Reasoning on the subject is useless, from want of sufficient data. 
Along the analogous volcanic line of South America earthquakes are of 
constant occurrence. One day they will break out at Concepcion, the next 
shock will be felt at Lima, then at Valparaiso, at Islay, at Guayaquil ; and 
two years ago the action appears to have shifted to the city of Mendoza, on 
the eastern side of the Andes, where earthquakes had been hitherto unknown. 
The changes going on from time to time in the great area of depression of 
the Pacific may be reasonably supposed to act with notable force on the 
eastern and western edges of the basin, whether in America or in New 
Zealand and its continuing curves. 
The severest shocks of earthquakes that have been felt in New Zealand 
since the arrival of the settlers took place in 1843, in October 1848, in 
January 1855, and in February 1863. These three latter shocks appear to 
have been felt more or less over at all events a large part, if not the whole, 
of the islands ; but no systematic attempts have hitherto been made to record 
earthquake shocks throughout the colony. The three former ones were 
most severe in Cook Strait, the last at Napier. The greatest force of the 
earthquakes of 1848 and 1855 appears to have been exerted near the 
Kaikoura mountains, in the South Island. Wellington suffered severely 
from the earthquake of 1848, and that of 1855 raised the land in its vicini 
to a height of from nine to four feet above its former level. Nelson felt 
both shocks perhaps less severely than Wellington. The impression is that 
during the earthquake of 1855, while the land at Wellington rose, that on 
the south side of the Strait was depressed, and of this there appears to be 
