VOL. L.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 65 



Oswego, situate on the south-eastern shore of Lake Ontario, and distant from 

 hence about 250 miles w. by n. So great was the shock in the Atlantic, 70 

 leagues to the e. of Cape Anne, that the people on board a vessel there were 

 suddenly surprised, just at the time of our earthquake, supposing they had run 

 a-ground ; till, on throwing over the lead, they found they had more than 50 

 fathom water. The extent of the earthquake e. and w. from Halifax to Lake 

 George, was about 550 miles; and its extent along the sea-coast, from n.e. to 

 s.w. at least 800 miles. But if the agitation of the water at St. Martin's was 

 occasioned by our earthquake continued into the Atlantic, as was conjectured 

 above, its extent, in a direction toward the s.s.e. must have been at last IQOO 

 miles. 



As to the effects of this earthquake, besides the throwing down of glass, 

 pewter, and other moveables in the houses, many chimneys were levelled with 

 the roofs of the houses, and many more shattered, and thrown down in part. 

 Some were broken oft' several feet below the top, and by the suddeness and vio- 

 lence of the jerks canted horizontally an inch or two over, so as to stand very 

 dangerously. Some others were twisted, or turned round in part. The roofs of 

 some houses were quite broken in by the fall of chimneys; and the gable ends of 

 some brick buildings thrown down, and many more cracked. Throughout the 

 whole country, the stone fences were more or less thrown down. The vane 

 upon the public market-house in Boston was thrown down ; the wooden spindle, 

 which supported it, about 5 inches in diameter, and which had stood the most 

 violent gusts of wind, being snapped off". A new vane, on one of the churches 

 in Boston, was bent at its spindle 2 or 3 points of the compass ; and another at 

 Springfield, distant about 8o miles westerly from Boston, was bent to a right 

 angle. A distiller's cistern, made of plank, almost new, and very strong put 

 together, was burst to pieces by the agitation of the liquor in it ; which was 

 thrown out with such force, as to break down one whole side of the shed, that 

 defended the cistern from the weather ; as also to stave off" a board or two from 

 a fence at the. distance of 8 or 10 feet from it. In some parts of the country, 

 particularly at Pembroke and Scituate, about 25 miles s.e. from hence, several 

 chasms or openings were made in the earth, from some of which water issued, 

 and many cart-loads of a fine whitish sort of sand. These are the principal 

 effects of this earthquake on the land, some of which argue a very quick and 

 violent motion of the earth. 



But the agitation occasioned by this earthquake was not confined to the land ; 

 it was very sensible on the water, and even at considerable distances in the ocean. 

 The vessels in our harbours were so shaken, that it seemed to those who were in 

 them, as if they were beating on the bottom. Some that were in the bay, coming- 

 in from sea, thought they had run upon rocks or sands. One very uncommon 



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