March 29, 1875 Earthquake: Vanuatu Islands

"…About half-past three o'clock on the Monday morning we had another shock of earthquake, much heavier, though greatly shorter, than the first, and which brought down the stone chimney in our cook-house, and which, I presume, was the shock that damaged the stone church at Anelgauhat. About five o'clock, a little before daylight, there was a third, not so heavy as either the other two; and about eight o'clock there was a fourth, which some thought to be heavier than any of the former three; but as all the damage had be done by the second that could be done, without a considerable additional force, this fourth shock left no special traces of its presence. from that time for more than three weeks there was not a day in which there was not one or more shocks. During the first ten days they amounted to upwards of a hundred; a good many of them were rather sharp shocks, but none of them doing any damage. So far as my experience and information go, the law of earthquakes seems to be this: - All the damage is done by the first shock or shocks; these again, are succeeded by a number of lighter shocks, which inflict no serious injury. After the severe earthquake in Wellington in 1848, while we were living there, there was not a day for three months without one or more shocks, but they did no damage; and we then learned that some old whalers had had a similar experience at Dusky Bay many years before [...] I should have mentioned that on the Monday morning the natives found a considerable number of fish of various kinds left high and dry by the receding wave; also one large turtle and several young ones not half grown: these latter are very rarely seen or caught together.” from Inglis, Rev. J., 1887. In the New Hebrides. Reminiscences of missionary life and work. T. Nelson and Sons, London. (reference #13894)