336 SAMOAN ISLANDS. 
2h. 52’ was below low water mark. In three minutes, it again rose, 
and after receding eighteen inches, suddenly rushed to its former 
maximum height. ‘These oscillations continued through the after- 
noon, and into the evening, but with less frequency and more quiet ; 
and on Thursday, the following day, they were still apparent. 
‘These oceanic undulations of November 7th, 1837, are well known 
to have been very violent at the Sandwich Islands. The American 
Journal of Science and Arts, vol. xxxvil. p. 358, 1839, contains a 
notice of the disastrous event, by 'T. Charles Byde Rooke; and ano- 
ther more circumstantial account is given in the Hawaiian Spectator. 
To compare the occurrences at the different groups, it must be borne 
in mind that according to the modes of reckoning time at the Sand- 
wich and the Samoan or Society Islands, the 7th of November, at the 
former group, is the 8th at either of the latter two; the time at the 
Sandwich Islands having been fixed by persons going by Cape Horn 
to the Pacific, and that at the islands south of the equator, by persons 
going by the Cape of Good Hope. It is unnecessary to repeat here 
the particulars of this catastrophe. It is described as occurring on 
“the evening and night of the 7th of November,” and at Byron’s Bay 
(Hilo), the sea rose, at 6h. 30’ p.m. toa height of twenty feet. A 
similar event took place at the Sandwich Islands in May, 1819, when 
the tide rose and fell thirteen times in the space of a few hours. 
