Judge Tenney’s account of an earthquake. ST 
pecting to see it follow : but as I knew that these were perfectly firm 
and sound, I instantly abandoned it. A second conjecture was form- 
ed and immediately given up on a reflection, that the cause was total. 
ly inadequate to the effect. A third was rendered unnecessary bya 
tremendous report in the atmosphere, apparently at a very small dis- 
tance from the house. I thought it equal to that produced by the 
discharge of an 18 or 24 pound cannon at the distance of half a mile, 
and much resembling it in tone and duration. I now concluded it to 
be an earthquake ; and expecting, from its singular commencement, 
that we should have a severe shock, I set myself to notice the phe- 
nomena, that might attend its progress, with all possible accuracy, 
This report, though so heavy and to appearance so near, gave no sen- 
sible concussion to the house. But it was instantly succeeded by the 
sound usually attending an earthquake, which I need not describe. 
This continued, with some little variation of intensity, forty or fifty 
seconds,.as near as I could judge, though some thought it a minute or 
more; then, after afew seconds, it ceased to be heard. It was accom- 
panied, from the beginning, till the sound began to die away, by a 
most beautiful vibration of the floor under me. The vibrations from 
first to last were to appearance as perfectly isochronous as the oscilla- 
tions of a pendulum, and, as near as I could judge, passed through a 
space of about one third of an inch, succeeding one another about as 
rapidly me the strokes of the teeth of the weight wheel of an eight day 
clock, when wound up in the usual leisurely manner. 
To most people in this town the first noise appeared, as it did to 
me, to be under foot, though to others it appeared piety, some 
comparing it to one thing and some to another. Aligemr hed stay ee 
loud. A maid in my family, who was sitting by the kitchen fire, in 
another part of the house, thought a hogshead of cider had fallen from 
its blocks, and with all the barrels in the cellar, was tumbling over the 
