Mr. Mallet's Notice of the British Earthquake of November 9, 1852. 409 



There are good grounds for supposing that during the night of the 9th No- 

 vember, 1852, several minor shocks of earthquake took place, and were felt 

 more or less in and around Dublin by different individuals, who, before the severe 

 shock of 4 o'clock a.m., did not attribute them to any natural cause: and a let- 

 ter to our fellow-member, Mr. Clibborn, from a trustworthy observer, renders 

 it probable that on the succeeding night there was a continuance of subterranean 

 commotion of a diminished character, and such, very probably, might have con- 

 tinued during the intervening day also, but without attracting the attention, 

 which the silence and increase of sound at night induced. 



The last shock of earthquake of any note occuiTing in Great Britain was 

 experienced with various degrees of intensity throughout the greater part of 

 Lancashii'e, and the adjacent districts of Westmoreland, Cumberland, Cheshire, 

 Flintshire, and the Isle of Man, and took place a few minutes befoi-e 1 o'clock 

 on the morning of Friday, March 17, 1843. On that occasion, as on the pre- 

 sent, somewhat varying statements were made as to the duration and severity 

 of the visitation, but there was a material difference in the state of the weather 

 and of the atmosphere. After the last shock in 1843, accounts were received 

 from the "West Indies announcing that a severe earthquake had taken place 

 there about the same time, and that a great number of lives had been sacri- 

 ficed. 



Of preceding British earthquakes, out of 116 recorded by Milne, 31 

 (according to him) had their centres in Wales, 31 along the south coast of 

 England, 14 on the borders of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, and 5 or 6 in Cum- 

 berland. 



In the south of England he is of opinion that most shocks have an E. and 

 W. direction, while those of Anglesea, North Wales, and Cheshire are N. W. 

 and S. E., in both cases coinciding with the general lines of great faults. 



He considers, from the discussion of 130 Scottish and of 116 English earth- 

 quakes, that there is a maximum of occurrence for the former in November, 

 and for the latter in September ; taken all together, there occurred 74 in the 

 three winter months, 44 in spring, 58 in summer, and 79 in autumn ; or 50 in 

 the summer half year against 89 in the winter half 



M. Perrey, in his Memoir on British earthquakes, from a discussion of 234 



