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The exact direction of this shock is still a matter of dispute. 

 Indeed it is no easy thing to determine the course of an earth- 

 quake ; for the best constructed seismometers have a serious 

 difficulty to contend -with, which is this, — there is no fixed point 

 to start from ; everything in an earthquake being alike in motion. 



We must be satisfied, I think, with a rough approximation 

 to the truth, trusting almost entirely to our own feelings and 

 those of others. 



My house faces E. S. E., the back, therefore, is turned to 

 the W. N". W. Now, according to the feelings of the members 

 of my family, the shock struck the back of the house first and 

 passed away by the front. 



Two policemen, standing at the moment of the shock at 

 the junction of Blue School and "Widemarsh Streets, felt satisfied 

 that the sound rolled towards them " do'mi "Wall Street," that 

 is from W. by S. Others, again, are confident that the shock 

 came from the N. "W. 



It is now of course impossible to determine this point, and 

 therefore I prefer to use the term Westward, leaving the exact 

 point of the compass an open question. 



The duration of an earthquake, like the direction, is a 

 point difficult to determine. Probably the sound and movement 

 which caused so much dismay only lasted four or five seconds ; 

 but from the report of coimty policemen, gamekeepers, and others, 

 I am inclined to think that slight tremors of the earth took place 

 at intervals during the whole of that night. The game in pre- 

 serves was said to be disturbed in a remarkable manner when 

 there was apparently no movement whatever ; at other times a 

 slight motion appears to have been perceptible to man. 



Eew visible effects were left by the earthquake : some 

 glass and china articles were thrown down and broken, ceilings 

 were cracked, and so was a strong garden-wall at Holmer. The 

 arched roof in the corridor of the City Prison, on the fe- 

 male side, was cracked to some extent ; and in the County Gaol 

 the arched roof of the corridor on the female side was so shaken 



