Fune 25, 1885] 
giving numerical expression to the amount of boredom 
expressed by the audience generally during the reading 
any particular memoir. EG, 
RECENT EARTHQUAKES 
apt shocks of earthquake in Cashmere continue with 
unabated violence and even appear to increase in 
frequency and force. Three severe shocks occurred 
during the night of the 13th and a smart convulsion on 
the morning of the 14th. It is now ascertained that 2281 
lives were lost in the Muzzafferabad district, where at first 
it was thought there had been no casualties. The earth- 
quake was also felt in Gilghit. Another very severe shock 
at Baramulla on the 17th demolished all the buildings 
which escaped former shocks. At Skardo on the 14th 
and at Srinugur on the 17th, 18th, and 19th, shocks were 
felt. In the Kamraj district the loss of life exceeds 2700. 
The Jheelum Valley, from Srinugur to Dopatta, appears 
to have suffered most. It is stated that both sides of the 
river from Sopur to Baramula have been seared with 
cracks, as also the low alluvial hills in the vicinity. The 
available data fix the centre of the disturbance in the 
vicinity of Gurais. It thus appears that in extent and 
amount of destruction the Cashmere earthquake must 
rank amongst the great seismic catastrophes of the 
century. 
On Thursday morning last (June 18) a portion of York- 
shire was visited by an earthquake shock. The reports 
from outlying districts show that the shock extended from 
the east coast through the Wolds and westwards as far as 
Headingley, near Leeds. Signalmen on the North-Eastern 
Railway speak positively as to the vibration and noise. 
Crockery and glass rattled on the shelves of houses, and 
at Knottingley and Ferrybridge persons ran from their 
houses from fear. At Easingwold desks and tables were 
seen to move, and there was a rumbling noise as of 
thunder. In some cases there was a severe shaking of 
houses, and doors were moved. The various reports 
concur as to the time being 10.50, and it is said there were 
two shocks. It is a curious coincidence that about an 
hour previous to this on the same day and in the same 
region the frightful explosion at the Clifton Hall Colliery 
took place. Unhappily our knowledge will not permit us 
to connect seismic disturbances with disasters or mishaps 
in mines, but we have here a violent and unusual disturb- 
ance in the crust of the earth in Yorkshire and an almost 
simultaneous mining catastrophe in Lancashire. 
We have received the following communications with 
reference to the Yorkshire earthquakes :— 
A SLIGHT shock of earthquake was felt here yesterday 
morning in the favourable stillness of the “ Friends’” 
meeting for worship. The time was observed to be about 
10.47 a.m. I was seated with my back to the north, when 
a rumbling sound appeared to be swelling onwards for 
about two seconds from the south or south-west. I then 
noticed that the hanging leaf of a small table in front of 
me (its plane lying east and west) was rattling very dis- 
tinctly, and immediately I became aware that the back 
of my seat was shaking me perceptibly. Others heard 
some of the windows rattling on both the east and west 
sides of the house, and were shaken by their seats moving 
slightly ; these seats were some of them at right angles 
to mine. Some of these persons thought the rumbling 
came from the east ; others from the west. One gentle- 
man, sitting in a corner, thought that his right shoulder, 
against a north partition, was shaken more than his left, 
against the east wall. He also thought that the rumbling 
came from the south end of the house. The place of 
worship is about two-thirds of a mile to the north-east 
of our observatory, which is in lat. 53° 38’ 40'S, and long. 
1° 20’ 32°75 W. Nothing was noticed at the time by a 
man and a boy working in our garden. It is reported in 
NATURE 
(75 
to-day’s Leeds Mercury to have been felt at York, Leeds, 
and Driffield. WILLIAM SCARNELL LEAN 
Flounders College, Ackworth, near Pontefract, June 19 
CAPT. STAVELEY, at whose house the recent earthquake 
of June 18 was felt in a marked degree, gives me the fol- 
lowing information respecting it. His house at North 
Dalton (seven miles south-west of Driffield) stands on a 
slight elevation surrounded with undulating hills common 
to the Cretaceous formation of the Wolds. The shock 
occurred between 10.30 and 10.45 a.m. (the exact time 
was not noted), and lasted about three seconds, travelling 
from west-south-west to east-north-east. Mrs. Staveley, 
who was in her bedroom at the time, felt a slight shock, 
then a rumbling sound as of thunder, and after that 
another stronger shock. The servants downstairs felt a 
distinct rocking, and the bricklayer’s boy, on a ladder 
level with the roof, saw the whole roof heave up and 
down three times. In the dairy some dishes firmly placed 
on a high shelf were thrown down and broken, and at the 
inn on the other side of the road the walls trembled per- 
ceptibly, and the bottles and glasses were shaken and 
knocked against each other. The inhabitants of this and 
neighbouring villages felt the vibrations more or less dis- 
tinctly, but the shock seems to have been greatest at, and 
in the direction of, Capt. Staveley’s house. The colliery 
explosion near Manchester happened about an hour 
earlier; is it possible for there to be any connection 
between the two ? J. LOVELL 
Driffield 
The following extracts are from the Au/l Express of 
June 20 :— 
Information which reached us yesterday shows that the 
earthquake-shocks experienced on Thursday in York and 
Market Weighton were also felt in more or less degree in 
other parts of the great shire. 
Mr. W. Botterill, of Parliament Street, Hull, writes :— 
“ On returning home (Newland Park) from business last 
evening, my wife informed me that during the morning 
she had for some seconds very sensibly felt a vibratory 
motion in the house, which she fully believed to be caused 
by a slight shock of earthquake, and added that she 
should confidently expect to find in this morning’s papers 
notices in confirmation thereof. It was, therefore, no 
surprise to learn from your current issue, and other papers 
of to-day, that similar effects had been experienced at 
York, Market Weighton, and elsewhere, about the same 
hour of the day.” 
A North Cave correspondent says that at about eleven 
o’clock in the morning nearly every house was subjected 
to a slight shaking. 
A Driffield correspondent says that at the village of 
Hutton several residents felt a severe shaking of their 
houses, and at the same time the inner doors were sud- 
denly moved, crockery upset, and other signs of disturb- 
ance were observed. People were so terrified that they 
cannot very accurately describe the shock, but state they 
felt a “reeling ” sensation. 
Another correspondent writing from Driffield says :— 
“ Yesterday morning a somewhat severe shock of earth- 
quake was felt at North Dalton, a village about eight 
miles from Driffield. The shock appears to have been 
the most distinctly felt at the residence of Capt. Staveley, 
which stands in an isolated and elevated position, and 
the house vibrated from basement to roof for several 
seconds. A bricklayer’s apprentice who was repairing 
the reof had a narrow escape of being thrown down, and 
the greatest alarm was felt by the villagers, who ‘ran out 
of their houses in fear for their lives.’ ” 
The shock was also distinctly felt in Leeds. In Delph 
Lane, Wood-house Ridge, the occupants of three houses 
which adjoin each other noticed it. It resembled the 
effect which would be produced by the violent shutting of 
doors, the windows rattling, and there being a perceptible 
