TIDAL WAVES AT RAROTONGA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2210, 9 July 1896, Page 21

TIDAL WAVES AT RAROTONGA.

Auckland, July 4. News was received from the island by the Taupo that considerable excitement was oiiuaed at Bftrotonga on the 16;h of l««t month by a disturbance in the waters round the island. W&ves kepb coming in on top of waves. The wattr in the harbour was quite 10ft above the usual level. The Linda Weber, lying at anchor in Varna Harbour, was left high and dry- for several minutes by each receding wave, which were evidently the result of some considerable volcanic disturbance somewhere in the vicinity of the islands. This lasted till 6 in the evening. No damage was done. The natives, as a result of the unusual occurrence, were employed all afternoon gathering the fish which were stranded on the shores in immense numbers. Mr J. C. Crane, a passenger by the Toapo, gives an account of the phenomenon at lUrotonga on the 15th tilt. :■— "The weather was lovely—* bright iun, no .wind, and c. smooth sea like a mirror as far as the eye could reach— about 2 p.m. Afc low tide one can walk out on the reef about 1000 ft. The writer happeued to b9 on the reef's outer «dge looking ab some natives fishing, when all of a sudden the sea commenced to sink and run -away from the edge of the reef for a long distance eeawards, exposing to the naked eye some- coral which within the memory of the natives had nob been exposed beforo. In front of the settlement of Varua is a email bay like a split in the reef.. On the first trip of the Taupo she lay in there. Pilotage is so expensive that she only came inside once. If she bad happened bo be there then there would nob have been enough water left to float her a« the little harbour appeared to run almost dry. The Natives and myself made good time in getting off the reef. Iv less than 10 minutes the sea came slowly bsck, not like breakers, but like a great flood slowly pressing' the water up till a gradual grade and fully 500 ft back of high water mark, leaving many £sh high and dry. All that afternoon, about every firo minutes, this motion of the sea backwards and forwards wenb ou, the water being forced np hill. In falling back its sound was like the falls of Niagara."