Mr. Mallet's Notice of the British Earthqtiake of November 9, 1852. 405 



The general form of the area of sea and land shaken assumes on the map 

 the form of a large irregular ellipse of small eccentricity. Were observations 

 to the south-west of this region available, it is likely that it might enlarge the 

 curve in that direction.* Within this space the point of maximum disturbance 

 seems to have been at and about Shrewsbury, where more serious results of the 

 shock were experienced than in any other quarter. A strong wall of thirty 

 yards in length was there overthrown ; and at Newton, not far distant, a 

 wooden bridge over the Severn is said to have fallen ; while the bells rang in 

 Ellesmere church. 



The circumstances both of direction and of centre of maximum surface dis- 

 turbance, therefore, seem to point to the great volcanic focus of which the Azores, 

 Portugal, and the Canary Islands, form the well-known centres of convulsion — 

 as the region of the origin of the shock in the present case — the point from which 

 the blow was delivered, which transmitted the elastic wave, would, on following 

 the general direction to the south, pass through the group of the Canaries. 

 And assuming that we have arrived with any tolerable approximation at the 

 angle of emergence, the vertical depth of the origin, if taken below these islands, 

 would be very great indeed. It is quite likely, however, that an intermediate 

 point of convulsive energy exists in or about the latitude of Lisbon, and thus 

 at a less profoimd depth. 



It is worthy of remark that the circumstances of this shock, viz., the 

 previous increasing tremor, accompanied by the " Bramidos," the horrible 

 subterranean thunder, and ending with the violent single or double shock, are 

 precisely those of the terrible Lisbon earthquake of 1755, and of all others in 

 that region. 



The Portuguese focus was in energetic action about the precise time of our 

 earthquake, as the following notice proves : — 



" A shock of an earthquake had been felt at Malaga, which spread general 

 consternation among the inhabitants of that city. At half-past 1 o'clock a.m. 



• I have obtained no observations made at sea. Professor Haughton stated when the author's 

 paper was read, that the shock had been felt at Clogheen, county of Tipperary ; and the Rev. 

 S. Smith, tliat it had been felt at Enciskillen. As these gentlemen, however, did not communi- 

 cate their information at the proper time, the author has been unable to adopt it, or to know to 

 what extent the evidence may be received. 



3 G 2 



