376 Mr D. Milne on Earthquake- Shocks felt in Great Britain^ 



miles from Comrie, and in a direction (by true bearings) N. ^ E. 

 from it, some very remarkable phenomena were observed. 



The two gentlemen, whose reports are now to be quoted 

 from, are the Rev. Mr Shepherd, parochial minister there, and 

 the Rev. Mr Rutherfurd ; the latter of whom was the person 

 selected by Sir D. Brewster, to take charge of the Meteorolo- 

 gical Observatory established at Kingussie. 



Mr Rutherfurd states that " the shock took place at 18 

 minutes past 10 o'clock p.m. One person informed me that 

 another took place about a quarter of an hour after, with a 

 rushing noise like wind, but no tremor ; the atmosphere being 

 quite calm, when examined without doors.- The noise was 

 almost instantaneously succeeded by a heaving up of the 

 ground, and then, after the interval of a few seconds, succeeded 

 by a vibratory motion. One gentleman described it to me as 

 if a huge giant had attempted to lift the house, and not being 

 able to succeed, took hold of it by the two corners in a passion 

 and shook it from side to side. Another mentioned the bed on 

 which she lay as heaved up, and, after a moment's pause, shaking 

 her from side to side as if to awaken her from a sound sleep. 

 The noise seemed to be in the earth. The shock seems, 

 from concurrent testimony, to have almost followed the track 

 of the river here, nearly in a north-easterly direction. In one 

 house pieces of loose lime fell from the sarking upon the gar- 

 ret floor, and the parlour door was thrown open. In other 

 places the dishes, &;c. rattled in the presses. In one the 

 bottles were broken, and the house-bell rung. In one place, 

 a little below the boat-house, where the valley is narrowest, 

 a piece of alluvial level land, almost surrounded by the Spey, 

 has been observed since to have an undulating surface, just as 

 if the waves, during a swell in a rather calm sea, had been ar- 

 rested in a moment and so remained. The undulations seem 

 to have been moving in a north-easterly direction ; they are 

 not very marked, but were not observed before." 



" There was a sulphureous smell at the time of the shock, 

 which was most distinctly felt by the Rev. Mr Shepherd, who 

 went out almost immediately after the shock, and called Mrs 

 Shepherd, who also felt it very strong. They repeated their 



