62 On the Earthquakes of North- America. 



My own travels in the western parts of the states 

 of Pennsylvania, Virginia, New- York, &x., bad made 

 me well acquainted with the fact, that the strata of 

 limestone, slate, freestone, coal, iron-ore, &c, are 

 very generally disposed in a horizontal direction in 

 those parts of the country ; while, in the Atlantic 

 district, the strata of the same materials are very sel- 

 dom horizontally arranged, but, on the contrary, are 

 disrupted, " and, as it were, jumbled together by 

 violence." 



Having become acquainted with the fact, I began 

 to speculate upon it. Professor Williams's paper on 

 the Earthquakes of New-England*, to which I refer- 

 red Mr. Volney, solicited much of my attention. 

 From this paper, I learned, that the principal line of 

 direction of those earthquakes had been from the 

 north-west to the south-eastf. I had, moreover, 



* Observations and Conjectures on the Earthquakes of New- 

 England. See Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences. Vol. I. Part II. No. VIII. 



f " Another thing observable in the earthquakes of New-Eng- 

 land is, they have all gone in much the same course. As to two 

 or three of the earthquakes, we have no account of their course : 

 but in all those in which it was determined, there is a very great 

 agreement. They are all described as coming from about north- 

 west, and going off about south-east. As this was the case with 

 all whose direction was observed, we may rationally conclude, 

 that they all proceeded in pretty much the same general track ; 

 in a path from about north-west to south-east, though with many 

 small deviations and irregularities, in particular places." Me- 

 moirs, &c. p. 281. 



