258 TEAR-BOOK OF FACTS. 



EARTHQUAKE IX KENT. 



A CORRESPONDENT of the Athenieum writes from River Hill, Seven- 

 oaks : — " On September 3rd, at six or seven minutes past three in 

 the afternoon, a smart shock, bearing all the characteristics of an 

 earthquake, was felt over a district of several miles in extent, north, 

 south, east, and west from this place. My information extends to 

 Ightham, east ; Tunbridge, south; Lullingstone, north; and Chip- 

 stead, north-west. The statements of the different observers present 

 the following variety. Persons on the ground floor in various houses 

 thought that somebody was running about violently, or dragging the 

 furniture about in the room overhead ; or, in some cases, they 

 imagined that some one had fallen down-stairs. The furniture in the 

 different apartments, such as desks, tables, and beds, moved ; and 

 the inmates of different rooms ran out, imagining that something 

 had happened in seme other part of the house. In my own house, 

 which is substantiall)' built of stone, the impression produced on one 

 of my sons was that some part of the house had fallen down. 

 Another, up-stairs, with no room overhead, describes the sound as 

 of a very heavily-laden waggon trotting past the front door ; and he 

 was at the same time conscious of a distinct motion from east to 

 west, which appeared to throw him towards the window. In other 

 houses in the neighbourhood^, pictures suspended on the walls were 

 seen to vibrate, the furniture was shaken, and curtain-rings rattled. 

 In the neighbourhood of Ightham, a boy fishing felt the ground move 

 under his feet, and taw, as he describes it, the rushes in the pond 

 move. I myself had just driven off from the house in a two-wheeled 

 dog-cart, and was not conscious of anything except what appeared to 

 be a short and subdued clap of thunder ; but some other persons, 

 driving near the same spot at the same time, perceived the shock, 

 which they at first attributed to an explosion at the Tunbridge 

 powder-mills. I have no observation of the barometer for that day, 

 but the sky to the south of this place, which commands a very 

 extensive view, was densely overcast for two hours before and after 

 the shock, and a very singular-looking mass of black vapour tilled 

 and obscured the valley. It was not like an ordinary thunder* 

 Btorm, but formed a Bort of wall of dark mist. Thunder was beard 

 at a distance for Borne hours, but no ram fill here, nor was there here 

 any loud thunder. 1 learned, however, that very heavy nun fell 

 in detached stornis.it Bt vera] plaoefl a few miles off, and the church at 

 Bait 1'cckhani appears to have Keen struck by lightning." 



'.I ms in AUSTRALIA. 



Tiik existence of Native Diainondi I disoovemd in the 



black Band of the Ovens dint: <t, by an Irish miner, named O'Neill. 

 Rubies and other L.'ems .,i \ i\ imall (ise had previously been 

 found in the same deposit. — -1 lutraliun and A'< o . tttt. 



