Profefor WittiaMs on Earthquakes. p 
"Fo the fouth-weft, they -have feyeral: times reached as far as 
Maryland ; -but never fo far as Virginia or Carolina... To-the 
north-eaft, they have been-bounded by Nova-Scotia ; having 
never been felt much further than Halifax.. .From the un- 
known, lands, at the north-weft, they have. gone off. fouth-eaft, 
into.the Atlantic. their extent this way, being greater than we 
are able „to -trace on either point of the compas. . The pro- 
vince of Mafachufétts- Bay, or rather, that partof New-Eng- 
Jand which is about the latitudeof 43° north, where the river 
Merrimack.empties itfelf into the Atlantic, has generally been 
the centre, or place of their preateft violence. If from this 
place, a line be drawn north-weft, it will pretty well reprefent 
‘the central courís of the earthquakes of this country : and from 
this line they have extended uon four hundred miles to the 
fouth-weft and north-eaft. Itis not meant to- be. very particu- 
lar, but only general, as to thefe boundaries.—And the. whole 
country, within theíe limits, has been repeatedly fhaken,— i 
moft violently about the middle, and leaít fo towards the fouth- 
weft and nerth-eaft boundaries. As far as.can be gathered from 
the accounts, it feems probable, that moft of the great fhocks 
have reached to much the fame places : -the .fmall ones, in- 
deed, have not had-fach an extent ; being felt only in different 
¿provinces and towns. But aX the earthquakes, within the 
above-mentioned limits, have come from the fame point,- and ran 
in the fame courfe : the great ones reaching to much the fame 
extent, as though there was fomething to dire& their motions 
the fame way, and to confine them to the fame limits. * 
A With what velocity. thefe earthquakes moved, it is not. caly 
.to determine. In many accounts of earthquakes, their. motion 
¿hàs been faid to be inftantaneous, like that of the clerical 
we Mm2 | fhock. 
