122 REPORT—1843, 
compared the concussion to “what a sudden and strong gust of wind would 
produce, or a loaded cart passing along the street.” 
Mr. Ronchetti, who resides at Salford, near Manchester, found his baro- 
meter at 8 p.M. on the preceding evening (viz. about five hours before the 
shock) standing at 29°90. He sat up reading till 2 a.M., 2. e. an hour after 
the shock, but without perceiving it. His barometer was then standing at 
29°70, so that it had fallen nearly two-tenths during the five hours preceding 
the shock. A correspondent at Ulswater states that he observed his baro- 
meter also falling during the previous afternoon. Mr. Atkinson’s Meteoro- 
logical Register, near Carlisle, shows that at 9 p.m. on the 16th of March the 
barometer was 29°794:; at 9 A.M. on the 17th it was 29°736; and at 9 p.m. on 
the same day 29°750, being lowest therefore near the time of the shock. 
There thus seems to be little doubt that the shock occurred with, as usual, a 
falling barometer. 
In a notice of the same shock, dated at Fleetwood-on-Wyre, it is mentioned, 
that during the whole of the previous afternoon the sky presented a gloomy 
and lowering appearance. The air was unusually close, and a dense haze 
hung over the sea. 
At and near Manchester the shock was said to have been felt coming from 
a few points to the south of east. In the Isle of Man the shock was followed 
by a sensible vibration from east to west. At Keswick, Gosforth and other 
places in Cumberland, the shock was felt to come from the south. In the 
counties of Dumfries and Selkirk it was perceived to come from the south- 
west. These data appear to indicate pretty clearly that the shock had radi- 
ated from some point between Yorkshire and Lancashire, and accordingly it 
was stated to have been felt in Newcastle and its neighbourhood, though not 
so severely as on the west side of the island. 
This shock produced, as might have been expected, sensible effects below 
the earth’s surface. It was distinctly felt in the coal-mines between Bury and 
Bolton, and alarmed the people so much as to make them run to the bottom 
of the shaft and call to be drawn up. In the same neighbourhood some 
workmen were engaged in boring, and had gone down about thirty yards, of 
which the lowest, ten yards, consisted of rock, above which there was a thick 
bed of sand, gravel and marl. On account of the looseness of these materials, 
seven or eight yards of the hole was piped with a strong tin casement, out of 
which, when the men left the work in the evening preceding the earthquake, 
a clear stream of water was issuing. When they returned to their work next 
morning the stream was not issuing ; and, moreover, in attempting to put their 
boring-irons down the hole, it was found that they would not pass as usual. 
The tin casement was then drawn up to be examined, when it was found to 
have been completely flattened and slightly bent, so that the light could not 
be seen through it. These effects were at the time attributed to the action of 
the earthquake on the materials of the strata through which the bore had been 
made. 
It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the different shocks above referred 
to as having occurred in Perthshire, Argyleshire, Wales, and the district of 
England last mentioned, all originated in these different localities, or rather in 
depths immediately below these respective portions of the earth’s surface. But 
whilst, as the experience of former years shows, these districts are very liable 
to be affected by earthquakes, they do not seem to have any common bond 
of connection. That is to say, a shock which rises up in any one of these 
districts is not felt in the others; from which it is reasonable to conclude, 
that the cause of the shocks (whatever that may be) was in these cases at 
least not seated at any great depth below the surface. 


