ON NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAIiES. 



15 



1801. 



1805. 



the afternoon. It is reported that a shock was felt in Canada in 1796, " a little before 

 March 6," and some rocks at Niagara Falls were dislodged. Keferstein mentions this, but 

 the fact seems doubtful.-' 



Von HofF mentions a shock felt at Philadelphia, March 17, 1800, and a severe 

 shock is said to have occurred at the same place November 29 of the same 

 year.^ On December 25, a severe shock was felt at Newport, Boston, Concord, and else- 

 where.^ In November, between the evening of the eleventh and morning of the twelfth, a 

 vibratory shock was felt.* March 1, 1801, an earthquake is reported.^ August 23, 

 1802, a severe shock, attended with a noise like the rattling of a carriage on jiave- 

 ment, was felt at Richmond, in Virginia. (Moniteur, 26 Vendemiaire, an 11.) No other 

 authority has been found, and these letters of occasional correspondents are to be received 

 with great caution. 



August 11, 1805, at seven o'clock in the evening, two slight shocks were felt at 

 the Haddam locality. Wind southwest in the forenoon, and a thunder storm about 

 four, P.M. Another was felt on December 30, at six o'clock in the morning. The atmos- 

 phere was moist.^ At Weston, in Connecticut, a remarkable meteor exploded in Decem- 

 ber, 1807, and some have referred the concussion produced to an earthquake.' 



The Haddam earthquakes were described by the Reverend Mr. Hosnier, of that town, 

 in a letter to Reverend Mr. Prince, of Boston, dated August 13, 1729. Portions of his 

 account are here given : — " As to the earthquakes, I have something considerable and 

 awful to tell you. Earthquakes have been here, (and nowhere but in this jarecinct, as can 

 be discovered ; that is, they seem to have their centre, rise and origin among us), as has 

 been observed for more than thirty years. I have been informed that in this place, before 

 the English settlements, there were great numbers of Indian inhabitants, and that it was 

 a place of extraordinary Indian powwows ; or in short, that it was a place where the In- 

 dians drove a prodigious trade at worshipping the devil." 



" Now whether there be anything diabolical in these things, I know not ; but this I 

 know, that God Almighty is to be seen and trembled at, in what has been often heard 

 among us. Whether it be fire or air distressed in the subterraneous caverns of the earth, 

 cannot be known ; for there is no eruption, no explosion perceptible, but by sounds and 

 tremors, Avhich sometimes are very fearful and dreadful. I have myself heard eight or 

 ten sovmds successively, and imitating small arms, in the space of five minutes. I have, 

 I suppose, heard several hundreds of them within twenty years ; some more, some less 

 terrible. Sometimes we have heard them almost every day, and great numbers of them 

 in the space of a year. Oftentimes I have observed them to be coming down from the 

 north, imitating slow thunder, until the sound came near, or right under, and then there 

 seemed to be a breaking, like the noise of a cannon shot, or severe thunder, which shakes 

 the houses and all tliat is in them. They have, in a manner, closed since the great earth- 

 quake. As 1 remember, there have been but two known since that time, and those but 

 moderate." ^ Dr. Trumbull, in his history from which the above is quoted, writing about 

 the beginning of the present century, says : " A worthy gentleman, about six years since, 



1 Bibliotlieque Britannique, t. ii, p. 86. 

 ' Hamburg Corn'sjiomleiioe, 1801, nr. 15. 

 ' Moniteur, 24 Vf ntose an 9. 

 * Haiub. CorrusponJ. nr. 25, 1802. 



5 Felt's Annals of S.iU-ni, ir. p. 143. 



^Silliman's Journal, vol. xxxix, p. 3.'J9. 



' Loc. cit. p. 3?>r,. 



'Trumbull's History of Connecticut, vol. n, p. 92. 



