4 WILLIAM T. BRIGIIAM 



pais qui vivent encore. L'on voyoit des moiitagnes s'entreclioquer, J'autrea se jettoient dans le grand Fleuve 

 de Saint Laurent; quelques autres se sont enfoncees dans la terre. II y en a eu qui se sont detachees de leurs 

 fondemens, et qui ont avance plus de cent brasses dans le Fleuve portant et retcnant leurs arbres et leur ver- 

 dure. Les Montagues des deux cotez se sont perdues et egalees aux C.unpagnes voisines plus d'une lieuij sur 

 le Fleuve, et il y a un espace de plus de cent lieues tout renipli de rochers et de montagnes qui s'est tellement 

 applani, qu'il fait aujourd'hui une grande pluine aussi egale que si elle avoit cte dresse au niveau. On voit 

 depuis ce tems-la des Montagues oix 11 n'y en avoit jamais eu; des Rivieres oil il y avoit auparavant des 

 Forets, et on trouve des Lacs et des Fleuves oti l'on voyait des Montagnes inaccessibles." 



No contradiction followed the publication of tliis remarkable statement in Paris. The 

 substance of Charlevoix's account is as follows : About half past five in the evening, the 

 heavens being very serene, there was suddenly heard a roar, like that of a great fire. 

 Immediately the buildings were shaken violently, and doors opened and shut of them- 

 selves with a great slamming. Bells rung without being touched, and walls split asunder, 

 while the floor's separated and fell down. The fields were raised " like precipices," and 

 mountains seemed to be moving out of their place. Animals were terrified and uttered 

 strange cries. For nearly half an hour the trembling lasted, a most unusual time, but it 

 began to abate in a quarter of an hour after it first began. The same evening, about 

 eight o'clock, there was another equally violent shock, and within half an hour two others 

 less violent. The next day, " about three hours from the morning, there Avas a violent 

 shock, which lasted a long time ; and the next night some counted thirty-two shocks ; of 

 which many were violent." Nor did these earthquakes cease until the July following.-' 

 New England and New York were shaken, as well as Canada, but in a less degree, and 

 the whole territory convulsed, so far as can be learned, extended nearlj^ three hundred 

 miles from east to west, and half as many from north to south. Sometimes the shocks 

 were sudden, at other times they came on gradually ; some seemed to be vertical, others 

 undulatory. Springs and brooks were dried up, or became sulphurous ; and some had 

 their channel so completely altered as hardly to be recognized. Between Tadoussac and 

 Quebec " two mountains " were shaken into the St. Lawrence, and perhaps fi-om a similar 

 accession of material the Island Aux Coudres became larger than it was befoi-e. The 

 course of all these waves was from the northwest when felt in New England, and the cen- 

 tre of disturbance was not flxr from the ancient volcano of Montreal. On the shores of 

 Massachusetts Bay, houses were shaken so that pewter fell from the shelves, and the tops 

 of several chimneys were broken ; but as many of the latter Avere of rough stone, they 

 were the more easily overthrown.^ 



From the Newbury record is the following : " January 26th. There was an earthquake 

 at the shutting in of the evening." One of the greatest in New England ; and on Feb- 

 ruary 5th another. The first shock continued about half an hour. On the same day, at 

 evening, another, and they did not cease till July following.^ 



February 24, 1665. In the neighborhood of Tadoussac and La Malbaye, in 



1665 J ^ c 



Canada, violent shocks were felt, but they are hardly noticed in any of the New 

 England chronicles. Lallemant is the authority for this, and also for an earthquake on 



1 Memoirs of the American Academy, vol. r, p. 204. " Coffin's History of Newbury, p. 66. Probably tbe date 



2 See also Frezier's Voyage, pp. 210, 211. Also Mac- February 5, is simply a mistake from tbc change of style. 

 Gregor's Travels in America. February 5, N. S., is tbe same as January 26, O. S. 



