THE "SIXTH SENSE" 127 



Watlington, under the Chilterns, the shock of the 

 earthquake at Lisbon was distinctly felt, and the 

 waters of the deep moat which surrounds the house 

 were seen to rise on one side and sink on another. 



What the effect of this earthquake shock may have 

 been upon domestic animals kept near the castle is 

 not recorded. But on the same chalk range, which 

 overhangs Shirburn and extends along the Thames as 

 far as Caversham, one of the most extraordinary and 

 universal panics ever known among domestic animals 

 in this country occurred quite recently, a panic which 

 can only be explained on the supposition that they 

 felt the premonition of an earthquake, or one of those 

 subterranean sounds which sometimes precede earth- 

 quakes. 



These hills are a series of sheep farms, the flocks 

 being part of the regular local system of agriculture. 

 One morning the greater number of the flocks, which 

 had been left safe in their folds, were found to have 

 broken out. In some cases they were scattered or 

 had wandered to a distance, but little loss resulted. 

 It is not uncommon for sheep to stampede at night. 

 They will do so if an escaped stag comes to look 

 at the flock, or if strange dogs approach the fold. 

 But when the shepherds met at the next big sheep 

 fair and compared notes, it was found that the range 

 of country over which this panic had occurred was far 

 too extensive for any such explanation to be possible. 

 Nor could it have been mere coincidence. The local 

 papers contented themselves with chronicling the fact, 

 without suggesting a reason. That no earthquake 



