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



minutes, the water receded from the pier, and some walked 

 dry shod where that short space before the boats had been 

 floating mjive or six feet water. In the course of a few mi- 

 nutes the waters begatt to return, much in same way as they 

 had receded, and the tide continued to rise for the usual 

 time. There was no extraordinary commotion, only an in- 

 creased surf After repeated rolls of thunder, and some 

 heavy showers, the sky cleared up. It is the belief generally 

 that this singular motion was the effect of an earthquake, 

 whose shocks have of late been so frequently experienced in 

 Scotland." 



2Qth November 1841. — That this shock was pretty severe, 

 is proved by extracts from the following letters. 



At CoMRiE, it was felt, as the Rev. Mr M'Kenzie (then 

 minister of the parish) wrote, — "About 12^ 40' both the 

 sound and the shock were very distinct ; the former very like 

 the sound that would be occasioned by a carriage passing along 

 the street, with great rapidity ; the latter causing the house 

 to shake three times as much as a carriage would have done." 



At DuNiRA, as Sir David Dundas wrote, — " A shock was 

 felt about P 15' p.m., accompanied with a noise, evidently 

 proceeding from NE. to SW. The day before had been 

 very wet and rainy; but during the night it cleared up to 

 hard frost. Some snow, but not to any depths had fallen 

 during the early part of the morning. A sharp frost suc- 

 ceeded, and at the time the shock took place, it was freezing 

 hard. I was shooting at the time, with an English gentle- 

 man, who told me, that he observed the trees shake in a very 

 peculiar way, and that it was very much the same sort of 

 thing that he had felt in Rannoch, on the night of the 23d 

 October. 



20^A December 1841. — At Kintail, in Ross-shire, a severe 

 shock occurred at 4 p.m., which greatly alarmed the inhabi- 

 tants of several parishes. " There was nothing peculiar in 

 the state of the weather ,^ or the appearance of the day, un- 

 less it might be a stillness and calmness in the atmosphere, 

 which, although remarked at the time, is not uncommon at 

 even this season of the year. There was no recurrence of 

 the shock. The noise which invariably accompanies such visi- 

 ta"'^5ons, like the rushing of water or the rattling of a carriage, 



