120 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1750. 



Cerigo was more liable, and more rudely treated by the late earthquake ; both 

 because it was an isle, and because it was rocky. So we must say of the late 

 earthquake in Switzerland, that split the mountain and the old castle-wall. 

 Whence Mr. Johnson, in his second letter, says, it cracked a very strong brick 

 house in Gosberton by Spalding. Dr. Doddridge observes, from Northampton, 

 that Dr. Stonehouse's dwelling, being a very strong one, was most sensibly 

 shaken. And, throughout the whole extent of this great earthquake, we find 

 both the noise, the shock, and the terror, was greatest at the churches, whose 

 walls and bulk made more resistance than houses : and generally speaking, the 

 churches throughout this whole extent have very fair and large towers, and many 

 remarkable spires of good stone. 



This same vibration, impressed on the water, meeting with the solid of the 

 bottom of ships and lighters, gives that thump felt there. Yet, of the millions 

 of ordinary houses, over which it passed, not one fell : a consideration which 

 sufficiently points out to us what sort of a motion this was not ; what sort of a 

 motion it was ; and whence derived : not a convulsion of the bowels of the earth, 

 but a uniform vibration of its surface, aptly thought like that of a musical string ; 

 or what we put a drinking-glass into, by rubbing one's finger over the edge ; 

 which yet, brought to a certain pitch, breaks the glass ; undoubtedly an electric 

 repulsion of parts. 



7. We find, from all accounts ancient and modern, that the weather preced- 

 ing these shocks was mild, warm, dry, serene, clear, frosty : what notoriously 

 favours all our electrical experiments. We very well know, that generally all 

 last winter, spring, summer, and autumn, have been remarkably of this kind of 

 weather ; more so than has been observed in our memory ; and have had all 

 those requisites, appearances, and preparations, that notoriously cause electri- 

 city, that promote it, or that are the effects of it. 



8. We find the blood-red australis aurora preceding at Spalding, as with us at 

 London. This year has been more remarkable than any for fire-balls, thunder, 

 lightning, and coruscations, almost throughout all England. Fire-balls more 

 than one were seen in Rutland and Lincolnshire, and particularly observed. 

 All these kinds of meteors are rightly judged to proceed from a state of electricity 

 in the earth and atmosphere. 



Mr. Johnson, in both his letters on the first and second earthquakes at Spald- 

 ing, remarks particularly of their effects being mostly spread to the north and 

 south, and especially felt on the sea-coast. We may observe that such is the 

 direction of Spalding river, which both conducts and strengthens the electric vi- 

 bration ; conveying it along the sea-shore, thence up Boston channel, and so 

 up Boston river to Lincoln ; as we discern, by casting our eye upon a map. 



We observe further, that the main of this second earthquake displayed its ef- 



