Blake.] 236 



the thanks of the Society be given to the Trustees of the 

 Library for their courtesy. 



Prof H. Y. Hind of Toronto, Canada, was elected a Cor- 

 responding Member, and the following gentlemen elected 

 Resident Members : — Dr. William Ingalls of Boston, and 

 Mr. Henry W. Fuller of Roxbury. 



Dec. 6, 1865. 

 The President in the chair. 



Forty-two members present. 



The following 2:)apers were read : — 



Account of an Earthquake at San Feancisco, Cal., Oct. 8, 

 1865. By Prof. Wm. P. Blake. 



An earthquake of unusual violence, sufficient to crack and injure 

 many of the buildings in San Francisco, was experienced in this re- 

 gion, on the 8th of October last, at sixteen minutes before one 

 o'clock, P. M. There were two distinct shocks, or periods of agita- 

 tion, from five to ten seconds long, separated by an interval of per- 

 haps five seconds. I was in Oakland, sitting at a table, and the first 

 shock seemed to be a rapid, vertical, or jarring motion; the next, after 

 an interval of a few seconds, was more lateral and wave-like, and 

 seemed to be along a northeast and southwest line. The cottage 

 rocked so violently that it seemed as if the plastering must fall, and 

 we all ran out in fear. The shock in San Francisco was perhaps 

 more violent. Some of tbe heavy buildings were badly cracked, 

 walls were loosened from the timbers of the floors, and fircAvalls and 

 cornices were thrown down. The front wall of a new four story 

 building, on Third Street, was thrown down, while the side walls re- 

 mained uninjured. In some of the streets there was a gi-eat destruc- 

 tion of window glass. No lives are known to have been lost. There 

 are many interesting facts which seem to show the extent and direc- 

 tion of the movement in some places, but they are so conflicting as to 

 be unsatisfactory. Water standing in tubs, pails and bowls, was par- 

 tially thrown out ; and in the philosophical instrument shop of Mr. 

 Roach, a barometer tube, filled, and hanging by a string, was swung 

 forwards and sideways so as to catch upon a projection three inches 



