ON NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES. 5 



October 15th of the same year, at 9'' 30' P.M., preceded by a noise louder than that of 

 two hundred pieces of artihery, and lasting "about the time of a Miserere."^ 



Earthquakes are mentioned in the years 1668, 1669, 1670 and 1706, but no account 

 has been preserved.^ Neither Mallet nor Von HofF mention tliem. Dr. Mather simply 

 speaks of those occurring in the last two years, and there was one on January 8, 

 1720, but all were so slight as to escape general notice, and no particulars have 

 been recorded. 



November 8, 1727. About forty minutes past ten o'clock in the evening, during 

 a perfect calm, clear air and serene sky, a heavy rumbling noise was heard. At 

 first far off, it grew louder and in about thirty seconds the shock came. Houses shook 

 and rocked as if falling to pieces. Pewter and china were thrown from their shelves. 

 Stone walls and chimneys were shaken down, and it was difficult for men to stand up. 

 The ground seemed to rise and fall as the vibration passed. The shock commenced about 

 half a minute from the time the noise was first heard, rose to its maximum in about a 

 minute, and then decreased in half a minute. The direction was from northwest to 

 southeast. At Newbury, and aljout the mouth of the Merrimack River, the shock was 

 most violent. Reverend Benjamin Column, D.D., says :^ "There the earth opened and 

 threw up many cart-loads of a fine sand and ashes, mixed with some small remains of 

 sulphur ; but so small that taking up some of it in my fingers and dropping it into a 

 chaffing-dish of bright coals, in a dark place, once in three times the blue flame of the 

 sulphur would plaiiiy arise and give a small scent, and but a small one. By this it seems 

 evident that it was a sulphurous blast which burst open the ground and threw up the 

 calcined bituminous earth." In the account Dr. Dudley sent to the Royal Society,* the 

 sulphurous smell is spoken of, and he says : " Persons of credit do also affirm that just 

 before, or at the time of the earthquake, they perceived flashes of light." 



An account written by Stephen Jaques is as follows : ^ 



" On the twenty-ninth day of October, between ten and eleven, it being sabath day niglit, there was a 

 terabel earthquake. The like was never known in this land. It came with a dreadful roreing, as if it was 

 thunder, and then a pounce like grate guns two or three times close one after another. It shook down bricks 

 fi-om y" tops of abundance of chimnios, some allmost all the heads. ... All that was about y° houses trem- 

 bled, beds shook, some cellar walls fell partly down. Benjamins Plumer's stone without his dore fell into his 

 cellar. Stone wals fell in a hundred plasis. Most peopel gat up in a moment. It came very often all y° 

 night aft,ar, and it was heard two or three times some days and nights, and on the sab:ith day night on y" 

 twenty-fourth of Deceuiber following, between ten and eleven, it was very loud, as any time except y" first, 

 and twice that night aftar but not so loud. The first night it broke out in more than ten places in y= town in 

 y= clay low land, blowing up y'' sand, sum more, sum less. In one place near Spring Island it blew out, as 

 was judged twenty loads, and when it was cast on coals in y" night, it burnt like brimstone." 



Probably the smell of brimstone noticed was purely imaginary, and the earth or sand 

 thrown out was due to the agency of water pent up beneath the clay soil, since, as vfill be 

 seen below, the water which issued with it continued to flow for several days. 



1 Relation ile ce qui s'est passe de plus remarqu.ables aiix * Loc. cil. no. 437, vol. xxxix, p. 72. He adds (p. 

 missions des Peres de la Compagnie de Jesus en la Nouvelle C9): " Our house-dogs were also sensible and affected with 

 France en 1GG4 et I6G5. Par Jerome Lallemant. p. 115 et the earthquake; some of them barking, others howling and 

 suiv. making strange and unusual noises." 



2 Philosophical Transaction?, no. 437, vol. xxxix, p. Gl . ^ Coffin's History of Newbury, p. 1 98. 

 ' Philosophical Transactions, no. 409, vol. xxxvi, p. 125. 



MEMOIK9 B09T. SOC. NAT. BIST. VOL. II. 2 



