48 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



verberating sound ; no shocks being noticed by those travel- 

 ing in buggies, although those standing on the ground felt it 

 tremble under them. The hypothesis that these noises were 

 caused by the blasting of rocks is held by Professor Dupre to 

 be entirely unsatisfactory. No blasting, as far as he could 

 learn, had taken place within a considerable distance of that 

 neighborhood for many months past, and the observation that 

 the sounds and shocks were nearly simultaneous, wherever 

 observed, is inconsistent with the phenomena of blasting. He 

 is inclined to believe that most of the noises accompanying 

 earthquakes are the secondary effects of a force acting at a 

 great depth, and concludes that the phenomena connected 

 with the agitation of Stone Mountain must be referred to that 

 general volcanic or earthquake force which has its origin deep 

 down in the earth's crust. He sees no evidence of any vol- 

 canic action properly so called neither in the immediate re- 

 gion of this mountain nor in the neighboring portions of the 

 Blue Ridge. The Orphans \Frknd, April 4, 1874. 







EARTHQUAKES IN NEW ENGLAND. 



Mr. Lancaster, in some remarks on Mr. Brio-ham's catalogue 

 of New England earthquakes, states that during the last 

 three centuries the number of recorded earthquakes in New 

 England has averaged about two per annum. The maximum 

 numbers of earthquakes fall in February and November, the 

 minimum in April and September. There are 168 recorded 

 to have occurred during the entire period in the autumn and 

 winter months, while only 86 are recorded in the spring and 

 summer months. 12 A, IX., 332. 



THE EARTHQUAKE OF MARCH 6, 1872. 



An important contribution has been made to our knowl- 

 edge of earthquake phenomena by the publication of a mono- 

 graph, by Von Seebach, on the earthquake of Central Ger- 

 many, on the 6th of March, 1872. The author states that, 

 in this investigation, he intended to carry out the principles 

 first fully developed by Mallet in his classic work on the great 

 Neapolitan earthquake of 1857. On more carefully approach- 

 ing the problem, however, and sifting the material at his com- 

 mand, it soon appeared that the application of Mallet's meth- 

 ods was scarcely practicable in the present case. As is well 



