'^EARTHQUAKES IN NORTH CAROLINA. 257 



which our newspapers have been teeming for many weeks past. We 

 remained on the summit for some time, hoping for an opportunity to 

 determine whether the explosions came from the east or west side of 

 the mountain, or from the ground under our feet. As nothing occurred 

 to settle this question, we descended the western slope to Mrs. Murphy's 

 saw-mill, about eight miles from the head of Broad Eiver. A portion 

 of our party, who had passed two miles around the base of the moun- 

 tain, heard three loud explosions, and felt two distinct shocks proceeding 

 directly from the peak which we had left but one hour before. This 1 

 did not hear or feel, as I was engaged at the time in taking notes of the 

 testimony of Mr. T. J. Dalton, amid the rumbling of machinery and the 

 roar of the mill-dam. 



It is unnecessary to give, in detail, all the testimony which we col- 

 lected from the people while passing along the eastern and western 

 side of this mountain, including a d»istance of eighteen miles. They all 

 concurred in the following summary : That there were certain days marked 

 by loud reports and severe shakes ; that from fifty to seventy-five shocks 

 have been felt since the 10th of February ; that the noise begins with 

 an explosion like a quarry-blast, followed by a rumbling sound, lasting 

 only a few seconds ; that the shocks are simultaneous, or almost so, with 

 the reports, and seem to follow the direction of the rumbling sound, 

 with this exception, that those near the top of the mountain assert they 

 appear to be under and all around them ; that the reports all came from 

 the Stone and Bald Mountain Ridge, those living on the east side point- 

 ing to the west, and those on the west pointing to the east for the di- 

 rection of sounds; that these reports occur as often during the night as 

 the day, in fair weather as in foul ; that the effects are felt five miles on 

 each side of the mountain-ridge, and extend from Broad Eiver on the 

 southwest to Catawba on the north, a distance of twenty-five miles; 

 that houses shake, trees with their dead leaves tremble, glasses and 

 crockery rattle, shavings in their workshops shake and "quaver," as 

 one expressed it. 



This testimony was collected from thirty or forty men and women of 

 different degrees of intelligence, and their remarkable concurrence in 

 the above statement places the facts beyond the possibility of doubt. 



Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain these facts. One 

 is, that the blasting of rock about the mountains will account for all of 

 them. Upon this point we made particular inquiry. There is certainly 

 no operation going on about Stone Mountain, and as the work upon the 

 tunnels in Swannanoah Gap has ceased for more than twelve months, 

 there is no occasion for blasting anywhere else, as fine stones for build- 

 ing purposes, of every form and size, are scattered over all these regions. 

 Besides, any one acquainted with the law of sound knows that the vibra- 

 tory motion communicated to the matter in the crust of the earth .by a 

 blast (supposing it capable of extending to a great distance) will be felt 

 much sooner than the undulations of the atmosphere, which transmit 

 17 s 



