298 



EARTHQUAKES. 



their beds and ran into the streets ; some lay between 

 the sheets, alruid to rise ; others sprung to the win- 

 dows, and seeing in the dim light, that was almost 

 darkness, their friends and neighbors naked, shrieked 

 aloud with the apprehension that the day of judgment 

 had arrived. Others yet thought they heard, among 

 the varied noises, the trumpet of Gabriel sounding, 

 and fell upon their knees and cried out for mercy ; 

 some fainted away for fright, and those of the most 

 composed .temper expected to be buried beneath the 

 ruins of their houses. Children, waked from their 

 sleep, ran crying to their frightened parents ; the dogs 

 howled dismally ; birds flew into the air with fright- 

 ened cries, and cattle that were in the fields fled bel- 

 lowing to the barns and sheds. In Boston about 100 

 chimneys were leveled to the roofs of the houses, in 

 some cases breaking through the roof- beams. About 

 1,500 were shattered and thrown down in part. Some 

 were broken oif several feet below the top, and some, 

 by the suddenness and violence of the shock, were 

 canted an inch or more from the perpendicular. Still 

 others were twisted awry, as if by a circular motion. 

 Many clocks were stopped. The vane on the public 

 market-house was thrown down the wooden spindle 

 that supported it being broken off at a place where it 

 was five inches in diameter ; yet it had withstood the 

 most violent gusts of wind. A new vane on one of 

 the churches was bent at the spindle, and a distiller's 

 cistern, made of plank, almost new and very strongly 

 put together, was burst in pieces by. the agitation of 

 the liquor in it. Similar resiilts were observable in 

 the country. At Springfield a metal spindle on one of 

 the churches was bent to a right angle. Through the 

 whole province of Massachusetts, stone fences, cellar- 

 walls, chimneys, and the like were cracked and thrown 

 down. Great alterations were observed in the springs 

 and ponds. In some the quality of the water was 

 changed ; in others, the quantity. New springs were 

 opened, and old ones dried up. At Pembroke, Scitu- 

 ate, and Lancaster chasms were made in the earth (at 

 Pembroke there were four or five of them), from which 

 water issued and fine, white sand, or powdered ashes, 

 were vomited. Almost immediately after the earth- 

 quake numbers of fish came to the surface of the 

 ocean, dead or dying. One fishin;--vessel brought in 

 several quintals of these fish. This earthquake was 

 traced a great distance. On the southwest it reached 

 as far as Chesapeake Bay, being, however, felt on the 

 easterly and not on the westerly side. At the north- 

 east it was felt as far as Halifax. It was perceived at 

 Lake George, but at Oswego, in New York, it was not 

 felt at all. On the ocean the shock was so great that 

 the mariners on board of a vessel seventy leagues 

 from Cape Ann thought they had run aground or 

 struck a rock, until, on sounding, they found they 

 were in more than fifty fathoms of water. 

 Nine hours after the great shock was felt in New 

 England an extraordinary motion of the sea happened 

 in the harbor of St. Martin's, in the West Indies. The 

 sea withdrew, leaving places where tnere was com- 

 monly at least five feet of water dry ; and then, re- 

 turning, it rose six feet above the ordinary level. 



On November 2-2, at 7.27 at night, and on December 

 19 at 10 P. M., in the same year (1755), there were two 

 light shocks. 



Another shock, that was generally felt, came on the 

 8th of July, 1757, at 2.20 p. M. 



In 1761, March 12, at about 2.30 A. M., an earth- 

 quake-shock was distinctly felt in New England ; and 

 there was a second one about 8 p. M. on November 1 

 of the same year. 



In 1766, 1769, and 1771 there were slight tremblings 

 of the earth. 



At about 11 o'clock on Nov. 29, 1783, a small earth- 

 quake shook New England and the Middle States. At 

 Boston, at Hartford, and at New Haven but one shock 

 was felt, but there were three in New York, and at 

 Philadelphia there were two, the first of which was 

 the stronger. 



In Silliman's "Journal of Science" a few of the 



earthquakes felt in the region of East Haddam are 

 mentioned. Two shocks, which followed each other 

 in quick succession on May 16, 1791, seem to have 

 been quite severe. The first was the most forcible, 

 and walls and chimneys were broken and cracked, 

 doors were unlatched, and a fissure several rods in 

 extent opened in the ground. Thirty lighter shocks 

 followed, and about one hundred were felt during the 

 night and the next day. 



On Aug. 28, 1792, at 10 p. M., and on October 24 in 

 the same year, at 1 A. M., shocks were perceived ; so, 

 also, on January 11, and July 6, 1793, and on March 

 9, 1794. 



There were slight shocks on May 8, 1804, and on 

 August 11 and December 30, in 1805, but they excited 

 little comment. 



A slight trembling was felt on Nov. 9, 1810. 



Prof. Williams was succeeded, as the histo- 

 riographer of American earthquakes, by the 

 Hon. Samuel L. Mitchill, who, in 1814, com- 

 piled an exhaustive account of the earthquakes 

 of 1811, 1812, and 1813. (See "Transactions 

 of the Literary and Philosophical Society of 

 New York," vol. i, p. 281.) The year 1811 

 was noted for its beautiful comet, for the fu- 

 rious tempest that swept the entire Atlantic 

 coast, and for its tremendous earthquake. On 

 Monday morning, Dec. 16, 1811, was felt the 

 most general seismic disturbance ever known 

 on this continent. Mr. Mitchill gives accounts 

 of the shocks at Washington, D. 0. ; Richmond 

 and Norfolk, Va.; Raleigh, N. 0.; George- 

 town, Columbia, Charleston, and Pineville, 

 S. C. ; Savannah, Ga. ; Natchez, Miss. ; Knox- 

 ville, Tenn. ; Louisville, Ky. ; Jefferson ville, 

 Ind. ; Detroit, Mich. ; St. Louis, Mo. ; and 

 New Orleans, La. ; and from Philadelphia, 

 Baltimore, New York, and many other places. 

 This earthquake was remarkable for its vio- 

 lence, its extent, and its continuance. The 

 Mississippi and Ohio valleys were visited by 

 shocks at frequent intervals during 1812 and 

 1818. Dr. Robertson, who, by order of the 

 Government, in 1806, traveled to the sources 

 of Arkansas river, witnessed these shocks at 

 St. Genevieve, Mo., and kept a memoran- 

 dum of their number until five hundred had 

 been recorded, when he grew weary of the 

 task and ceased to note any more. The In- 

 dians said the shpcks were very frequent and 

 violent far westward beyond civilization. The 

 center of disturbance was apparently near New 

 Madrid, Mo. The following account, dated 

 Dec. 25, 1811, was written by William Leigh 

 Pierce, and is mentioned by Mr. Mitchill as 

 worthy of credence. In considering the phe- 

 nomena that it details, the reader should re- 

 member the condition of civilization in the re- 

 gion affected. There were few structures of 

 brick or stone, the dwellings were almost in- 

 variably constructed of logs, and even in New 

 Orleans the buildings were mostly small and 

 insignificant. Mr. Pierce was going in a tint- 

 boat from Pittsburg to New Orleans. He left 

 the Ohio and entered the Mississippi on Friday, 

 Dec. 13, 1811, and on the evening of the 15th 

 (Sunday night) tied up at the left bank, about 

 116 miles from the mouth of the Ohio. His 



