MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 181 
His Excellency the Governor judges that it must have lasted 
at least one minute. 
The shock was more severely felt, as far as we can judge, 
in houses built on solid rock than in those having their foun- 
dations in soft stone or soil. The latter of course would 
offer less resistance to the violent commotion of the earth, 
and wouldyield readily to the pressure. But whether, asmany 
suppose, the more elevated parts of the Islands were more | 
severely visited than the less, is not so easy to determine. 
Many think that the hills shook much more than the valleys. 
We may, we fear, expect to hear that this earthquake was 
_ widely felt. It is not very unusual for slight shocks to be 
felt here; but it is many years since one similar to that of 
this night week was experienced in Bermuda. Generally, 
the effect is so trivial as to escape the observation of all but 
an experienced few ; very different was that of the 2d inst. 
If the Colony at large will remember how recently some 
of the fairest countries of Europe have been desolated by 
the visitations of these dreadful phenomena, it can hardly 
fail to acknowledge how much it owes to the goodness of 
God for sparing Bermuda those awful results which else- 
where have attended them. To feel the solid earth rock and 
tremble under one’s feet as if its huge vertebree were suddenly 
thrown out of joint, is a strange sensation, well calculated to 
overawe the human mind, but it is perhaps yet more 
amazing that such mighty commotions can come and go 
without leaving a trace behind—not one heap of stones or 
one riven wall to mark their progress—Bermuda Royal 
Gazette. 
Sharks of a large size are numerous on the outer reefs of 
the Bermudas, and though specimens are occasionally killed, 
