KiNAHAN — On the Earthquake in Essex, 323 



houses wrecked, although to the southward, at Hythe Bridge, 

 houses similarly situated are uninjured.^ The houses at East 

 Bridge are remarkable, because the direction of the shock seems 

 to have turned southwestward at the river, while elsewhere in 

 Colchester it seems to have gone nearly N. (N.N.E. by N.). The 

 water in the artesian well that supplies Colchester rose, after the 

 quake, seven feet, which height it has still kept up. This possibly 

 is due to the earthquake rupturing a dyke, or even a thin parting 

 of " fault-rock," and thereby adding an additional area of chalk 

 to that from which the water was previously drawn. 



Scarcely any damage was done in the western portion and 

 suburb of Colchester, while southward to the valley of the Eoman 

 river the isolated houses, &c., damaged, nearly invariably are on 

 small tongues of London clay, the principal exceptions being at 

 Eioman Hill, Middlewick, and Cockwort, East of the Colne river 

 valley, as elsewhere when the boundary or break of an excessively 

 damaged area is passed, very little damage occurs, the greatest 

 being in the village of Grreensted and Wivenhoe Park. These 

 damaged are on London clay, as also most of them to the N.E. 

 along the Crockleford stream valley. 



West Mersea Area. — This portion of the island of Mersea 

 seems to have been given more importance than it is entitled to, 

 on account of the cracks that opened in it and the springs that 

 came up, while in reality the damage done was less than that in 

 the country to the northward ; also it was altogether confined to 

 a small tract. To the S.W. of the island along the sea road, near 

 a slight drift escarpment to the N. and N.W. of SS. Peter and 

 Paul's Well, an E. and W. crack opened. It is said to have been 

 wide enough to put in your open hand and to have been over two 

 yards deep. In appearance it was very like the cracks not un- 

 common near the escarpments of drift clifEs. The well is at the 

 base of the cliff, at the margin of the alluvial flat, and has remark- 

 ably clear water, which is said to have risen and become quite 

 muddy, while a similar phenomenon took place in the pump well 

 of the Coastguard Station, a little to the north. To the N. E. of 

 this, at Crossfarm, a second E. and W. crack is said to have 

 opened, while in two places along it water spouted up — at one 



1 Some houses on the alluvium at Wivenhoe are injured. 



2 F2 



