TOL. XLIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 647 



SO extensively/ affected many very distant Parts of the Globe',* the folloiviw 

 Accounts, relating to the former, were transmitted to the Society ; in which 

 are specified the Times and Places when and where they happened. 

 J. At Portsmouth, in Hampshire. By Mr. John Robertson, F. R. S. p. 351. 

 On Saturday, Nov. 1, 1755, about 35 minutes after 10 in the morning, 

 there was observed in the dock-yard at Portsmouth, an extraordinary motion of 

 the waters in the north dock, and in the basin, and at two of the jetty-heads. 

 In the north dock, whose length is about 229 feet, breadth 74 feet, and at that 

 time about 1 7-r '^et depth of water, shut in by a pair of strong gates, well se- 

 cured, his majesty's ship the Gosport of 40 guns, was just let in to be docked, 

 and well stayed by guys and hawsers. On a sudden the ship ran backwards near 



3 feet, and then forwards as much, and at the same time she alternately pitched 

 with her stem and head to the depth of near 3 feet ; and by the libration of 

 the water, the gates alternately opened and shut, receding from each other near 



4 inches. 



In the basin, whose length is about 240 feet, breadth 220 feet, and at that 

 time about 17 feet depth of water, shut in by two pair of gates, lay the Berwick 

 of 70 guns, the Dover of 40 guns, both in a direction nearly parallel to the 

 Grosport ; and a merchant ship of about 600 tons, unloading tar, lying in an 

 oblique direction to the others. These ships were observed to be agitated in like 

 manner with the Gosport, and the tar-ship to roll from side to side : the swell of 

 the water against the sides of the basin was observed to be 9 inches ; one of the 

 workmen measured it between the librations. 



The Nassau, a 70-gun ship, lying along side a jetty head, between the north 

 dock and the basin ; also the Duke, a QO-gun ship, lying against the next jetty- 

 head, to the southward, both in a direction nearly at right angles to the others, 

 were observed to be rocked in the same manner, but not quite so violently : these 

 2 ships lay in the harbour. The dock and basin lie nearly east and west, on the 

 west side of the harbour. 



2. In Sussex, and the Southern Parts of Surrey. By Philip Carteret JVebb, 



Esq., F. R. S. p. 353. 

 In his garden at Busbridge, near Godalmin in Surrey, on Saturday the first of 

 November 1755, at half an hour after 10 in the forenoon, Philip Smith, John 

 Street, and John Johnson, the gardeners, were alarmed by a very unusual noise 

 in the water, at the east end of the long canal, near which John Street and John 

 Johnson were then at work. On looking that way, they observed the water, 

 in that part of the canal, in great agitation, attended with a considerable 



• This agitation of the waters, observed in various'parts of Great Britain, happened on the very 

 satne day with the memorable earthquake at Lisbon. 



