154- Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



tween the hollows there issued a strong gush of water, about as 

 thick as a man's wrist. For a week before the shock the weather 

 had been warm and sultry. In one of tbe mines the earth was felt 

 to move with a prodigious swift and apparently horizontal tremor." 

 — Gent.'s Mag., v. xxix. 146 ; and Transactions R.S.S.* 



1759, Feb. 24. — The shock of an earthquake was felt at Liskeard. 

 A bright aurora borealis seen in the evening. 



From the statements of several persons residing at Budock and at 

 Stithians, it appears some disturbance was felt in 1836. 



As this paper is designed to record as correctly as possible all 

 the circumstances connected with the phenomenon of the 17th of 

 February, 1842, I shall without hesitation state, in the first place, 

 the manner in which it was felt at my own residence, in Berkeley 

 Vale, Falmouth. 



About twenty minutes before nine a.m., I heard a peculiar rum- 

 bling sound, more like the moaning of the wind than thunder, which 

 was immediately followed by a shaking of the doors and windows of 

 the house, the whole effect lasting about half a minute. 



In the environs of the town of Falmouth, the noise particularly 

 attracted attention, and although but few speak of any tremor, yet 

 all describe it either as resembling the fall of a heavy body, or like a 

 distant explosion. Many persons were fully persuaded a steam ves- 

 sel had blown up in the harbour. 



At Penryn the disturbance was more decidedly felt than at Fal- 

 mouth, and most persons speak of the doors of their houses shaking, 

 and some of the earthenware rattling on the shelves : many left 

 their houses in alarm. It has been stated that the tide rose and fell 

 again suddenly ; such does not, however, appear to have been the 

 case : an individual, who observed the tide-mark at the bridge at the 

 time, says that no variation was produced. 



At Enys, one mile from Penryn, the shock is described by J. S. 

 Enys, Esq., " as a noise twice quickly repeated, like a heavy weight 

 falling and rebounding:" this gentleman also speaks distinctly of 

 the shaking of articles in the rooms. 



At Ponsanooth and down the valley to Perranwharf, the shock is 

 described by all persons as considerable, and the first impression was 

 that the powder mills in the neighbourhood had exploded. Along 

 this line, still extending to the north, the disturbance appears to 

 have been equally felt. The inhabitants of the villages of Comfort 

 and Lanner, under Cam Marth, about the junction of the granite 

 and killas or clay-slate, left their houses, thinking that some serious 

 explosion had occurred at the neighbouring mine ; and on the south- 

 ern side of the granite hill, Cam Marth, the people felt a great tre- 

 mor. An intelligent person, captain of Poldory mine, describes it 

 thus : — " I imagined some of the empty railroad waggons had been 

 let go at the top of the incline, and were rapidly rushing past the 

 door of my house : my neighbour, a widow woman, ran out shriek- 

 ing that the side of her house was coming in." In Poldory, the 



* We presume this is intended to refer to the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh, in which Mr. Milne's paper appeared. 



