Lesson xxxv.] EARTH QUAKES. 255 



other 50 yards or upwards. The miner at the end 

 of the drift had just loaded his cart, and was draw- 

 ing it along ; but he was suddenly surprised by a 

 shock, which so terrified him that he immediately 

 quitted his employment, and ran to the west end of 

 the drift to his partner, who was no less terrified 

 than himself. They durst not attempt to climb the 

 shaft, lest that should be running in upon them : 

 but while they were consulting what means they 

 should take for their safety, they were surprized by 

 a second shock more violent than the first $ which 

 frightened them so much, that they both ran pre- 

 cipitately to the other end of the drift. They then 

 went down to another miner who worked about 12 

 yards below them. He told them that the violence 

 *of the second shock had been so great, that it 

 caused the rocks to grind upon one another. His 

 account was interrupted by a third shock, which 

 after an interval of four or five minutes, was suc- 

 ceeded by a fourth ; and, about the same space of 

 time after, by a fifth ; none of which were so vio- 

 lent as the second. They heard, after every shock, 

 a loud rumbling in the bowels of the earth, which 

 continued about half a minu;e, gradually decreas- 

 ing, or seeming to remove to a greater distance. 



At Shireburn Castle, Oxfordshire, a little after 

 ten in the morning, a very strange motion was 

 observed in the water of a moat which encom- 

 passes the house. There was a pretty thick fog, 

 not a breath of air, and the surface of the water 

 all over the moat as smooth as a looking-glass, 

 except at one corner, where it flowed iulo the shore, 



and 



