86 Mr D. Milne on Earthquake-Shocks feU in Great Britain, 



duration of the noise. I became sivvare on reflection, and 

 when my attention was no longer arrested by the imminent 

 danger of falling, that the table before me had sustained a 

 vibration similar to that of the chair on which I sat. The 

 south-west side of the table had become elevated above the 

 level, and again immediately became depressed below it. I 

 became particularly sensible of the deju-ession of the south- 

 west, having been impressed with the fear that the cai dies 

 would be thrown down upon me, but the extent of the move- 

 meT'.t was not such as to make the candlesticks totter. I 

 could make no doubt that the whole house had undergone a 

 similar vibration to those of the chair and table of which I 

 was so sensible, — or rather that the vibration of the house com- 

 prehended within it those of the chair and table. 



" The noise was of two distinct kinds. The front of the 

 house is about directly southwest, and the first noise heard, 

 was as if an immense quantity of small but sharp shingle had 

 been tilted against the foundation of the front wall, and 

 poured inward below the whole house. The shock instantly 

 followed, and was accompanied by a creaking and rattling of 

 the doors, \Aindows, and various articles of furniture, amidst 

 which a sharp rattling of the slates on the roof was distinctly 

 sensible. This latter noise was not of a continuous and uni- 

 form kind, and did not last long — not longer, I think, than 

 about a second ; but that which resembled the grinding noise 

 of tilted shingle, extended itself, apparently under ground, on 

 all sides, and became an immense volume of sound, graduall}^ 

 however, diminishing in intensity, and dying away first in the 

 southwest, and finally in the north-east, after an interval of 

 four or five seconds from its being first heard. 



" About a quarter of an hour previous to the shock, Mrs Far- 

 quharson had gone into the nursery on the same flat with me, 

 Avhich is that above the ground story ; and a young lady then 

 in the house had retired to her bed-room on the same flat, 

 while my eldest daughter had retired to hers in the flat just 

 above me. I had scarcely estimated the duration of the noise, 

 Avhen INIrs F. suddenly entered the room where I was sitting, 

 and stated that the young lady on the same flat had risen, 

 from her bed, and come to her in great alarm, saying, that 



