VOL. XLVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 121 



fects along and between the 2 rivers Welland and Avon ; and that from their 

 very origins down to their fall into the sea. It likewise reached the river Wi- 

 tham, which directed the electric stream that way too to Lincoln : for which 

 reason, as there meeting the same coming from Boston, the shock was most 

 sensibly felt. It reached likewise to the Trent at Nottingham, which conveyed 

 it to Newark. 



The first electrical stroke seems to have been made on the high ground above 

 Daventry in Northamptonshire, where are the Roman camps, made by P. Osto- 

 rius the propraetor. Thence it descended chiefly eastward, and along the river 

 Welland, from Harborough to Stamford, Spalding, and the sea ; and along the 

 river Avon, or Nen, to Northampton, Peterborough, and Wisbech, to the sea. 

 It spread all over the vast level of the Isle of Ely, assisted by many canals and 

 rivers, natural and artificial, made for drainage. It was still conducted east- 

 ward, up Mildenhall river in Suffolk, to Bury, and the parts adjacent. All 

 this affair, duly considered, is a confirmation of the doctrine I advanced on this 

 subject. 



10. I apprehend it was not the noise in the air, as of many cannon let off at 

 once, preceding the earthquake, that so much affrighted people, or affected the 

 sheep, the rookery at Kensington, the hen and chickens in Gray's-Inn-Lane, 

 and the pigeons : it could not be barely the superficial movement of the earth 

 that disturbed them all at once : I judge it to be the effect of electricity, some- 

 what like what causes sea-sickness ; such a sort of motion as we are not accus- 

 tomed to. So the earthquake affects all those of weak nerves, or that have 

 nervous complaints, obnoxious to hysterics, colics, rheumatic pains in their 

 joints. Several women were seized with violent head-achs, before both the 

 shocks we felt in London. It was this that affected the people with a shortness 

 of breath. This made the dog run whining about the room, seeking to get out: 

 This made the fishes leap up in the pond at Southwark ; like the experiment 

 of electrifying the fishes ; it makes them sick : and this causes the birds in cages 

 to hide their heads under their wings, because they cannot fly away : which is 

 commonly observed of them in Italy, and countries where earthquakes are more 

 frequent. 



1 1 . I observe, the shepherd of Kensington thought the motion of the earth- 

 quake, and the sound, were from n.w. tos.E. On the contrary, Mr. Byfield, 

 the scarlet dyer in Southwark, thought the noise came from the river below- 

 bridge, and went toward Westminster; where it rattled so, that he did not 

 doubt but that the abbey-church was beaten down. Dr. Parsons took pains to 

 find out the way of the motion of the earthquake, from the different position of 

 the beds ; but from the contradictory answers given, he could obtain no satisfac- 



VOL. X. R 



