14 On the Recent Earth-Tremors, 



seconds. The only conclusion tenable is that there were 

 distinct movements at various distant points. And this 

 conclusion harmonises with the view that ruptures took 

 place simultaneously at the centre of the disturbed area 

 and around its margin. 



The effects of the shock were most violent in Tasmania. 

 Walls cracked, plate-glass windows were shivered, stacks 

 of wood and bricks toppled over, trees swayed, church 

 bells tolled, boulders started from their beds, while men 

 left their houses, and flocks of sheep scattered in affright. 

 A church finial broke off and fell to the eastward ; another 

 one was shifted half an inch in the same direction, and 

 the debris of the chimneys lay along the ground in an 

 easterly and westerly direction. The pendulum of a 

 seisometer swayed half an inch, and other instruments 

 indicated a horizontal movement of 0"05 inch, and a 

 vertical of 0'112.inch, and water in a sawpit oscillated 

 two inches vertically. The shock was felt in the under- 

 ground workings of two mines. 



In Victoria the locality most strongly shaken was 

 Wilson's Promontory, but the movement was severe at 

 Geelono- Warragul, and Bairnsdale. 



It was generally reported that the motion was greatest 

 in lighthouses, belfries, and wharves, and least on terra 

 firma. 



Every earthquake takes three phases, as it affects the 

 land, the sea, or the air. The land shock we have 

 described. The sea shock has not been recorded in its 

 entirety ; it consists of two waves, and of these the second 

 has not been noticed by the observers. At Beauty 

 Point, in Tasmania, a tidal wave was reported. In the 

 Esk the waters grew discoloured, and at the Sandhills 

 they were agitated. These disturbances coincided in time 

 with the land shock, as far as I can learn, and this was 

 to have been expected; but the characteristic second 

 wave, which should have followed, has not been noted. 

 Its absence may be accounted for in three ways — firstly, 

 by the dulness of the observers ; secondly, by the circum- 

 stance that the shores of Tasmania generally have .deep 

 water round them, and that where this is the case, the 

 sea surface simply rises and falls, which movement might 

 not attract attention. But where the beach is shelving, 

 as it is at the entrance to the Gippsland Lakes, on the 

 Ninety-mile Beach, a roller is formed, which would be more 



