154 J. HOPKINSON 



accoimt of this sudden hurricane occupies a column and a third 

 of the paper, and gives graphic details of buildings being 

 destroyed, heavy carts lifted and carried along, fences ripped 

 up and walls lilown down, tiles and slates stripped off, windows 

 smashed, telegraph poles displaced, and trees uprooted. 



Probal:)ly the first impression conveyed by the account of this 

 hurricane at St. Albans and of the eai'th quake at Barnet is that 

 the latter may have been merely a phase of the former, the clap 

 of thunder being heard at Barnet and the rush of wind shaking 

 the houses ; but the sound could not have taken so long to reach 

 Barnet, nor was the wind felt thei*e. In view, however, of the 

 very numerous instances of atmospheric and of electric dis- 

 turbances accompanying earthquakes, it is difficult to resist the 

 idea that there may have been some connection between the 

 phenomena. 



III. Earthquakes, Storms, and Aurora. 



In approaching this question we must take into consideration 

 that earthquakes are most often due to one of the three causes 

 mentioned at the commencement of this paper : the faulting of 

 rocks ; the sinking of strata into cavities ; or explosions of 

 steam ; not one of which has any connection with atmospheric 

 disturbances nor necessarily with electrical action. It w^oidd be 

 enough for our argument if a sufficient number of instances were 

 known of earthquakes being accompanied by, or immediately 

 preceding or following, distui-bances in the air or electrical 

 discharges as in thunderstorms or that more unusual phenomenon 

 in our latitude, the Aurora l)oreahs, to lead to the inference that 

 they are not merely fortuitovis coincidences. 



From the earliest times of which we have any record we read 

 of earthquakes following or accompanying storms. In the Book 

 of Exodus (xix, 16, 18) it is written, on the occasion of the 

 giving of the Law to the Israelites : " And it came to pass on 

 the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and 

 lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice 

 of the trumpet exceeding loud ; . . . And mount Sinai was 

 altogether on a smoke, . . . and the smoke thereof ascended 

 as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly." 

 And in the 1st Book of the Kings (xix, 11) we read: "And . . . 

 a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces 

 the rocks before the Lord ; . . . and after the wind an 

 earthquake." 



Though not myself doubting the historical accuracy of these 

 passages, I may point out to any who may do so that they 

 thereby strengthen the argument in favour of such phenomena 

 taking place, for the Biblical writers would not have described 

 occurrences of this kind which had not actually happened were 

 they not familiar with them. That this belief was held by other 

 Biblical authors is shown by poetical and imaginative writings, 



