286 Profefor Wiuu1ams on Earthquakes. 
number, and much more fo as to the degree of their violence, 
all our reafonings, upon this article, muft be very uncertain.— 
Nor could we, without very accurateaccounts of the time and vio- 
lence of the earthquakes, the fmaller ones as well as the greater, 
ftate any proportion between the times and the fhocks, fuppof- 
ing fuch proportions to exift. .But if. there are any fuch pro- 
portions, or any order and regularity, in their periods, it is not 
apparent ; but rather the contrary, from all the accounts I have 
been abl: to.colle@. 
tas alfo. worthy of remark, that thefe E do not 
feem to have any connection with any thing that falls under our 
obfervation. It,has been fufpeéted, by thofe who account for 
the origin, of earthquakes on the principles of ele&ricity, and by 
many others, that there is fome connection between the ftate 
of the weather, or rather atmofphere, and the happening of a 
earthquake. — As our knowledge of this fubje& i is fo esr 
it may.not be amifs to note every thing.of this kind. And it 
is obfervable, that the earthquakes have generally happened in. 
alm, ferene and pleafant weather. Some.of the accounts. are 
very imperfect i in this refpe& : but, in general, they feem to 
agree pretty much in this particular. But though it-has gene- 
gally been the cafe, that the earthquakes have come on in fair 
end pleafant weather, it has not been univerfally fo.—In the 
earthquake which happened November 22, 1755, after the great 
fhock on the 18th, the weather was not clear and fair, but 
dull, cloudy, and attended with {mall fhowers, and a brifk gale 
at fonth-weft. —And in March, 1771, there was a {mall fhock, 
x D, im te: M of being fair weather, there was a heavy ftorm of. 
. But perhaps it is of no great confequence to mention. 
(X hs been more common for writers on this fubject to 
attempt 
