5/6 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1816. 



fectly different from that general- 

 ly attending the apprehension of 

 immediate danger. Indeed, no 

 such feeling could ]Jossibly be 

 present with me ; for I no sooner 

 knew it to be an earthquake, than 

 all sense of dread was absorbed 

 in the delight I felt in being so 

 very lucky as to have my curiosi- 

 ty satisfied by the actual experi- 

 ence of so raie a phenomenon, 

 the extent of wliich I naturally 

 supjiosed, at the moment, might 

 perhaps be confined to the narrow 

 district around me. 1 have known 

 several persons, quite incapable 

 of being influenced by fear of any 

 kind, who have remarked a simi- 

 lar sensation in themselves during 

 the time of a thunder-storm. This 

 faintish feeling, on the late occa- 

 sion, was in some people attended 

 by a very slight degree of sick- 

 ness. 



Perhaps it might not lia\ e been 

 altogether without its use to have 

 given in this place a slight and 

 general geological sketch of the 

 various rocks composing the dif- 

 ferent parts of the extensive range 

 of country throughout which the 

 late earthquake was experienced 

 in the greatest intensity. But if 

 I could even venture to draw 

 more largely on your patience, in 

 order to make such an attempt, I 

 do not feel sufficiently confident 

 in possessing ability or informa- 

 tion enough to enable me to do 

 justice to the subject. I may oidy 

 remark, that every geognostic 

 denomination of country seems 

 to liave submitted to the influence 

 of the agitating power : that 

 rocky positions ha\e in general 

 been much shaken, and in some 

 instances (as in that of this very 

 house) more so than those less 



decidedly of that character. We 

 have hardly any data to enable us 

 to say whether the primitive or 

 the floetz rocks yielded most easi- 

 ly to the vibratory motion. But 

 the alluvial site of the town of 

 Inverness, under which I believe 

 there is also a great deal of peat 

 moss, seems clearly and decidedly 

 to have manifested by far the 

 most violent appearances of con- 

 vulsion ; which, if my information 

 be correct, was even by no means 

 so great on the eminences in the 

 immediate neighbourhood. As we 

 have thus the most prominent ex- 

 ample of the power of the earth- 

 quake, displayed upon an alluvial 

 deposit ; so we have reason to de- 

 cide, from the body of the evi- 

 dence, that almost all alluvial ])0- 

 sitions were in general more vio- 

 lently convulsed than the more 

 stable formations in their close 

 vicinity ; although at the same 

 time we find several anomalies 

 militating against such a conclu- 

 sion. 



Upon the cause of earthquakes, 

 to find a perfect solution of which 

 has been a matter of difficulty to 

 philosophers of all ages and coun- 

 tries, I do not dare to throw out 

 any new speculation. I am, how- 

 ever, ralher inclined to adopt that 

 explanation which assigns it to 

 the rarefaction, and conversion 

 into steam, of large bodies of wa- 

 ter, at considerable depths be- 

 neath the earth's surface. It is 

 a general remark, ii\ all countries 

 where earthquakes are common, 

 that they are preceded by the fall 

 of copious rains. Such, for ex- 

 ample, was the case with that of 

 Lisbon, as well as with those of 

 Calabria. In the domestic in- 

 stance in question, too, we have 



had 



