342 Earthquake in Connecticut, §c. 
dreds of tons for exportation. A few miles above, (north,) the 
primary changes to red sandstone, with trap ; and near this Junie 
tion is a lead mine, formerly wrought, but now abandoned. A 
trap dyke of vast extent intersects the country, running from the 
coast at Guilford a great way inland. 
In Middle Haddam, near the centre of the well known Moodus 
noises, “ the shock was quite severe.” 'The direction was thought 
to be from west to east, but not exactly in a line with the strati- 
fication of the country. ‘The above remark is quoted from an ob- 
server by the Rev. Mr. Brewer, late missionary in Smyrna.* 
The same gentleman adds the following facts. Being at Chester 
on the day of the earthquake, (August 9,) a few miles below 
East Haddam, on the Connecticut River, he observed the jar to 
be equal in violence to one half of some 15 or 20 shocks to which 
he had been annually accustomed for a course of years in Srayr- 
na. He thinks that the rumbling may have continued half a 
minute, and that its course was from N. W. to S. E., nearly in 
the direction of the strata. It was perceieed at Westbrook, Had- 
dam and Wethersfield. z 
Mr. B. thinks that the earthquakes in Connecticut all proceed 
from the Moodus Hill, called Mount Tom. He observes that 
Smyrna was destroyed by an earthquake A. D. 177, and that the 
catastrophe has been several times repeated, “ but generally speak- 
ing, its numerous annual earthquakes extend over a circumference 
of probably not more than 20 or 30 miles, and are ordinarily so 
slight as barely to arouse one out of sleep, and seldom if ever 
does any rumbling accompany the shock.” “ Besides their limited 
extent, there are hot springs about five miles from the city, under 
the foot of Mount Corea, which go to prove them of local origin.” 
Nothing has, we believe, been suggested regarding the cause 
of the Haddam convulsions, worthy of confidence. The old 
story of fermenting or dpnorpenitiy pyrites has been repeated, 
but this cause seems quite inadequate to account for movements 
extending at intervals through centuries. 
‘Saat 
-*In the Hartford and New Haven Congregational Observer, of Aug. 29, 1840. 
