PROCEEDINGS 
OF 
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
Vou. III. Parr II. 1841—1842. No. 83. 
Dec. 1.—Samuel Stutchbury, Esq., A.L.S., Curator of the Philo- 
sophical and Literary Institution, Bristol, Commander Owen Stanley, 
_of H.M.S. Britomart ; James John Berkeley, Esq., Harpur Street, 
Bloomsbury ; and John Wallace, Esq., Carshalton Lodge, Surrey, 
were elected Fellows of this Society. 
A paper was first read, entitled, ‘‘ Report of the Destruction by 
Earthquake of the Town of Praya de Victoria, on the 15th of June, 
1841.” By Mr. Consul Hunt; communicated by direction of the 
Right Hon. the Foreign Secretary of State. 
The town of Praya stood at the east end of the island of Terceira, 
and contained 562 houses; near it were the villages of Lageas (523 
houses), Villa Nova (206 houses), Agoalva (244 houses), Fontinha 
(203 houses), and Fonte do Bastardo (144 houses), the total popula- 
tion being about 9000 souls. The town of Praya had been on a 
former occasion (1614) totally destroyed by an earthquake, and 
Angra, the capital of the island, situated twelve English miles 
distant, was considerably injured, the shocks being severely felt 
in the island of St. Michael. Although menaced durimg many 
earthquakes, Praya had escaped injury from that time till the 12th 
of June 1841, when, at 4 p.m., a violent shock was felt, and with 
diminished force to the westward. At twenty-five minutes past 
five, a second, more powerful shock was experienced, and through- 
out the 13th.of June, tremblings were felt at short intervals. At 
4 a.m. on the 14th a perfectly perceptible undulation destroyed all 
those buildings which had been previously weakened, but during the 
remainder of that day the island was visited by only occasional slight 
shocks. On the 15th, at 3 a.m., violent tremblings and horizontal 
undulations of the ground commenced, and continued, with intervals 
of ten minutes, and a duration of about 10 seconds, until 30 minutes 
past 3 o'clock, when a strong, vibrating and distinctly visible rocking 
motion was communicated to the surface, and threw down the un- 
destroyed portion of Praya, several churches and houses of the adja- 
cent villages, and considerably injured the remainder, as well as 
many elevated public buildings in other parts of the island.. The 
ground then remained comparatively at rest until 40 minutes past 2 
A.M. on the 16th, when a violent earthquake did further damage ; 
but from that period no additional injury was sustained, though the 
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