274 Profefor Witirams on Earthquakes. 
In.other places, its duration might be different, os ona to 
the different violence of the fhock. 
By the- accounts of thofe who were in the commons and 
open places, when the earthquake began, the couz/e of it’ was 
nearly from north weft to fouth-eaft. * Itwas almoft univerfally 
agreed, that the noife and fhakes feemed to pafs in that direc- 
tion : and thofe things which were in fuch a fituation as that 
they might have been thrown indifferently to any ora of, 
— pu a lay i in that dire&ion. © >> 
Theextent: ke, was traced to a great diftance. - 
On the fouth: Welt; it i réaclied às far-as: Chesapeake-Bay i ix Ma- 
ryland : being felt on the'eaftern, but not on the weftern fide. 
To the north-eaft, it was felt as far as Halifax. It ismuch 
more difficult to determine its weftern or eaftern limit;—It ex- 
tended.to all our back fettlements ;—was felt at Lake George, 
and probably many miles beyond :. but at Ofwego,. fituate on 
the fouth-eaftern fhore of Lake Ontario, and diftant from Bofton 
about two hundred and fifty miles weft- -by-north, it was not felt 
at all. . On the Atlantic, the fhock was fo great feventy leagues 
eaft of Cape Ann, that the people on. board a veffel, in that 
longitude, thought they had. run aground, or ftruck upon a 
rock, till on founding they found they had more than fifty fa- 
-thom water. By accounts, which were foon after received from 
the We, oft-Indies, it feems probable that the earthquake reached 
as far as thofe iflands ; OF». rather,  paffed by to the eaftward of 
them... "The account. was, ** That on the 18th of November, 
f * about two o'clock in the afternoon, the fea withdrew from 
LA hour of Sz. Martin's, leaving the veffels dry, and fith 
T ie ak hi where there ufed to. be three or four fathom 
id it continued out a confiderable time ; D that the 
] d ** people 
