Haast. — Recent Earthquakes on Land and Sea. 149 



obtained the information from several of tlie inhabitants living close to the 

 sea shore. 



The first vs^ave came about 3 o'clock, but there is no certainty about the 

 exact time. It was followed by three others, with intervals of about a 

 quarter of an hour between them, and of which the last was the highest. 



A iifth wave came about 8 o'clock, but it was not so high, nor was the 

 rush of water so violent, as of those which entered the bay afterwards. 

 Between 10 and 12 o'clock in the forenoon another succession of waves, 

 at intervals of fifteen to thirty minutes, was experienced. They were 

 irregular, but were quite as high as those in the early morning. 



A very high wave rushed in about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, which 

 Mr. Bishop considers to be the most formidable and highest of all, and 

 which rose 6 feet above the highest spring tides ; the altitude of the 

 Grovernment bridges above high watermark offering the necessary data for 

 that assertion. My informant considers this wave 2 to 3 feet higher than any 

 of the previous ones. All the succeeding waves which entered the bay 

 were smaller, and continued to flow in until Tuesday afternoon, when the 

 tides took their regular course. It appears, therefore, assuming the time 

 kept in Pigeon and Okain Bay to be the same, that in the latter locality 

 the highest and most destructive wave arrived three-quarters of an hour 

 after it had been observed in Pigeon Bay. 



Not having, as yet, authentic accounts from the other bays of Banks 

 Peninsula, I may only observe that the highest rise of the water in Akaroa 

 was towards 12 o'clock, midday, on Saturday, the 15th August, but it did 

 not enter the harbour in the form of a high wave, and altogether did not 

 occasion so much damage as in the smaller and more exposed bays. 



The position of Akaroa Harbour, opening to the south, being narrow at 

 its entrance, and the water being deeper than in the more northern bays, 

 may easily account for this. Before leaving Banks Peninsula I may observe 

 that the principal cause of the earthquake waves being there so much higher 

 than on other portions of the New Zealand coast, may be sought in the form 

 and shallowness of the sea bottom around it. For a long distance easterly 

 the sea is comparatively so shallow that the fifty fathom line lies more than 

 forty miles from the land. 



The 100 fathom line, beginning south of the Kaikouras, close in shore, 

 makes a great curve round Banks Peninsula, approaching the coast again a 

 little to the north of Otago Peninsula, where, as at the Amuri Bluff, the older 

 palseozoic rocks reach the east coast. From these two points they recede 

 gradually inland, so that to the westward of Banks Peninsula they are at a 

 distance of forty miles from the coast. The lower portion of that volcanic 

 system below the level of the sea, sloping gently down in all directions, has 



