Premonitory Symptoms.

These appear to have been very few and slight. Ruapehu, of which no previous record or even tradition of activity exists, had been observed to be steaming for several months previous to the eruption. On the 16th April, 1886, Mr. L. Cussen; ascended the mountain and found a steaming crater on the top; and on the next day he saw a large column of steam, 100ft. high, ascending from it. No extra activity has been observed in Tongariro, but Mr. A. B. Wright informs me that his men, who were camped at the north-east base of Tongariro on the night of the 9th June, heard a series of explosions come from the mountain, so loud and in such rapid succession that they expected an eruption would follow. They felt no earthquakes, although a week or so after the eruption Mr. Wright felt several severe ones between Tongariro and Lake Taupo, followed by a rumbling noise and distinct explosions in Tongariro. No unusual activity has been observed at White Island, and all through the eruption it appears to have retained its ordinary condition.

Earthquakes of a local character have occasionally been felt in the Tarawera district ever since Europeans inhabited the country, but during the last few months they had become much page 10 more common—not enough, however, to excite alarm, or even to arouse a suspicion that anything unusual was going to happen. The hot springs at Rotorua had been gradually declining, but this, as well as the low level of the lake, was, no doubt, due to the exceptionally dry season that had passed. On Monday, the 7th June, a party of excursionists from Wairoa visited Rotomahana, accompanied by the well-known guide Sophia, and reported nothing unusual there.

Heavy rain fell at Rotorua on the 4th and 5th June. From then to the time of the eruption it was fine at Rotorua, but at Wairoa it was showery on Wednesday, the 9th.

The self-registering barometer at the Government Sanatorium shows that at Rotorua on the forenoon of the 9th the glass gradually fell until 4 p.m., when it reached 29.00in. It then began to rise, and at 1 a.m. on the 10th was at 29.10in., which it maintained all through the eruption.