IQO PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1787. 



minister, nephew of Thompson the poet, and possessed of all the candour and 

 ingenuity of his uncle, said, that, walking in his garden, a little before Lauder's 

 accident, he several times felt a sensible tremor in the ground. He also said, that 

 he had observed on Lauder's body a zig-zag line, of about an inch and a quarter 

 broad, which extended from his chin down to his right thigh, and had followed 

 nearly the line of the buttons of his waistcoat. The skin was burnt white and 

 hard. 



These are all the circumstances, says Mr. B., I have been able to collect that 

 are well authenticated, and I shall not trouble you with reports that are not. 

 From the whole it would appear, that the earth had acquired a great super- 

 abundance of electrical matter, which was every where endeavouring to fly off 

 into the atmosphere. Perhaps it might be accounted for from the excessive dry- 

 ness of the ground ; and for many months, the almost total want of rain, which 

 is probably the agent that nature employs in preserving, or in restoring, the 

 equilibrium between the other two elements. But I shall not pretend to inves- 

 tigate the causes : all I wanted, was to give some account of the eflects. 



p. s. I cannot send away this letter without adding, in a postscript, that on 

 Friday the llth of August last, early in the morning, we had a pretty smart 

 shock of an earthquake. I was awaked by it, and felt the motion most distinctly 

 for 4 or 5 seconds at least. It appeared as if the bed had been pulled gently 

 from side to side several times. The motion was nearly north north-west and 

 south-east, as far as I could judge from the motion of the bed. The windows 

 were violently shaken, and made a great noise, which I believe was mistaken by 

 many people for a noise accompanying the earthquake. I immediately rose to 

 look at my watch, and found it 20 minutes after 2. It was a dead calm, the 

 morning close and warm, with a small drizzling rain, and though the moon was 

 but 2 days past the full, so dark that I could not perceive the hour without 

 striking a light. It was felt in almost every house in this neighbourhood, and 

 all the way from this country to the west coast of the island, where it seems to 

 have been more violent than here : but to the east of this place it was very 

 little felt. 



Perhaps it may not be improper to mention the state of the weather for some 

 time before and after this event, as it may possibly have had some influence on it. 

 The drought was very great till the 22d of July, when it rained a little ; and 

 this was repeated, though in small quantities, and generally accompanied by high 

 winds, till Thursday the 27th, when it blew the most violent tempest I ever 

 remember in this country. The young crop of turnips, in many fields, were 

 blown out of the ground, and almost entirely destroyed. The pease became 

 brown as if withered, and so did the leaves of the forest trees on that side which 

 was opposed to the blast. Vast clouds of dust were raised from the dry fields 



