io6 MEMOIRS of the 
feas were very calm, there was luddenly railed iucb a ftrange 
emotion in the water, that immediately K Iwelled as in a Itorm 5 
great larne waves appearing on a ludden, rolling with luch torce, 
that they drove molt fliips in the harbour from their anchors, 
breaking their cables in an inftant^ in Ziguam a the lea re- 
tired from the land in fuch a manner that for two or three hun- 
dred yards the bottom of the lea appeared dry, and the hlh were 
left behind, and in a minute or two's time the lea returned again 
and overflowed a great part of the A^ore^ at Tdlboufe the lea re- 
tired above a mile^ 2000 perfons were iuppoied to have penined 
ia this earthquake: It is obferved, that m windy weather there 
never happens a fhock, but in very calm weather it is always ex- 
pected: that after rain, the ihocks are generally fmarter than at 
other times, which mav be caufed by the Hiutting up of the pores 
of the earth, whereby 'the force is.more pent in, and hath iiotlo 
free a paiTaae as to perfpire and Ipend itlelf, ^c, that fince the 
earthquake, the land-breezes often fail, and inftead thereof the 
iea-breezees blow all nighty a thing rarely known berore, but 
fince common; m Tort Roy ah and in many places all over the 
inand, much fulphureous combuftible matter hath been round, 
which upon the kaft touch of fire would flame and burn like a 
candle: St. Cbripphers, one of the Caribbee J/lands was for- 
rr.erlv much infclled with earthquakes, but upon the eruption ot 
a gr'eat mountain of combuftible matter, which ftiU ccntinucs, 
they wholly ceaied, and have never fince been felt there 5 which 
aave Ibme hopes that Ibme fuch eruption m iome of the moun- 
tains of Jamaica would free that iiland from earthquakes. 
T>oe Distance of the Fix'd Stars 5 ly Mr. Francis Roberts. Phil 
Trani: N° 209. p. loi. 
SINCE the "Pytbam-ean iyftem of the world has been revived 
by Copernlciis, and now adopted by all mathematicians for 
the true one, there Teemed ground to imagine, that the diameter 
of the earth's annual orbit, which, according to our beft altrono- 
mers, is at kail 40000 times bigger than the lemidiameter of 
the earth, misht Give a lenfibk parallax to the fixed ftars, there- 
by to determine their dillance^ but there are Ibme confiderations, 
which make usfufpea that even this bafis is not large enough tor 
that purpole : M. H//jW7i, who is very exaa m his altronomical 
obiervations, tells us, he could never dilcover any viiihle magni- 
tude in the fixed liars, tho' he ukd glafl^es which ^^f^^^^^.^ ^^^ 
apparent diameter above lOo times ^ now fince m all likelihood 
the fixt ftars are fun?, perhaps of difil^rent magnitudes, we may, 
