and especially in Scotland. 165 



These extracts from registers verify, therefore, the ge- 

 neral, or rather the universal remark, made by all whose ob- 

 servations have been founded on, as to the unusually large 

 amount of water with which, for weeks or months previous 

 to the commencement of the shocks, the earth was saturated. 



But here another fact, of very material importance, which 

 forcibly arrested attention in Perthshire, must be specially ad- 

 verted to. It was remarked, that, flooded as the rivers were, 

 they were not so much flooded on the 23d October 1839 as 

 might have been expected, considering the great abundance 

 of rain which had fallen. The Rev. Mr Walker adverts to 

 this circumstance in the passage of his report above referred 

 to. The same was remarked of the river Airdle,* near Blair- 

 gowrie, and of the rivulets at Dunira, two miles west of Comrie. 



It is also not a little remarkable, that in Perthshire and 

 other parts of Scotland, wells and springs of water, were in 

 the month of October, notwithstanding the quantity of rain 

 which had fallen, in many places much diminished, or alto- 

 gether dried up. In one of the accounts received, it is stated 

 that " the water diminished more than one-half in the springs 

 about Crieff." At Cawdor, in the county of Nairn, a pump- 

 well went dry on the 24th October. " A field" (on the farm 

 of Park, situated about 2 miles south of Nairn), which at this 

 season was always covered with water, that could not be 

 drained off on account of the granite, is now quite dry, and 

 was ploughed a few days ago." At Inveragle House, near 

 Elgin, the servants had, for a day or two after the shock, to 

 go half a mile for water, in consequence of its disappear- 

 ing from the well usually resorted to. At Ballimore on 

 Loch Fine, a well went dry permanently, which always pre- 

 viously had afforded abundant supplies. 



These facts are curious. It is true, that October is the 

 month when, in Scotland, springs often diminish in quantity ; 

 but this arises from the dryness of the weather which gene- 

 rally occurs in that month and shortly before, — an explanation 

 quite inapplicable to the year 1839. 



See Vol. xxxiii., p. 388. 



