324 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



discoloured with red sand, and at tlie other with yellow. These 

 springs are said by the tenant to have lasted for about half an 

 hour. About thirty-two paces to the north of this line the water 

 in a well rose two feet and became quite muddy. All the people 

 from whom inquiries were made agreed in saying that the waters 

 in these different places had no peculiar taste or smell. 



The shock seems to have come from the N.N.E., and was de- 

 scribed by a boatman coming north across the Blackwater estuary, 

 as having first taken the stern of his boat as if he had run on a 

 mud bank, and then nearly twisted the rudder out of his hand, as 

 if he had cleared the bank. This statement of the boatman as to 

 the direction of the shock was confirmed by the Chief Boatman in 

 charge of the Coastguard Station and others. 



Of the exact time at which the shock was felt at each place 

 nothing satisfactory could be learned, as outside Colchester very 

 few people could say their clocks were right ; in each village, and 

 often in the one house, there being fifteen minutes or more between 

 the times registered by the clocks. The bearings of the walls on 

 which those that stopped hung, indicate directions. 



The cracks in the walls are also very unsatisfactory, as those in 

 one building may dip in different directions or even be at right 

 angles to one another ; thus between Peldon and Strood Mill the 

 majority bear nearly E. and W. (W.N.W. by W.), and dip 

 northward at 40° ; but some of these dip southward while 

 those of another system run nearly N. and S., and dip east- 

 ward at 30° ; also in the Abberton and Langenhoe area they are 

 most irregular, both as to direction and dip. At Colchester in 

 general the cracks bear nearly E. and W., but some do not ; most 

 of them have a more or less high angle of dip, and at Wivenhoe 

 the greater number are parallel to the river bed (N.N.W. and 

 S.S.E.). The cracks in general are from j to ^ an inch wide, but 

 in a few places, such as in the Peldon area, they are wider. In no 

 place could I find a trace of the walls having moved up and down 

 along the cracks. 



The inhabitants of the different areas of greatest structural 

 damage appear to have been so scared that they cannot tell if 

 there was more than one shock. At the following places, how- 

 ever, two or more shocks are said to have been felt : — Mark Tay, 2 ; 

 Maldon, 3 ; "Walton-on-the-Naze, 2 ; Ipswich, 3 (where it is also 



