342 Earthquake in Connecticut, Sfc. 



dreds of tons for exportation. A few miles above, (north,) the 

 primary changes to red sandstone, with trap ; and near this junc- 

 tion is a lead mine, formerly wrought, but now abandoned. A 

 trap dyke of vast extent intersects the country, running from the 

 coast at Guilford a great way inland. 



In Middle Haddani, near the centre of the well known Moodus 

 noises, " the shock was quite severe." The direction was thought 

 to be from west to east, but not exactly in a line with the strati- 

 fication of the country. The above remark is quoted from an ob- 

 server by the Rev. Mr. Brewer, late missionary in Smyrna.* 

 The same gentleman adds the following facts. Being at Chester 

 on the day of the earthquake, (August 9,) a few miles below 

 East Haddam, on the Connecticut River, he observed the jar to 

 be equal in violence to one half of some 15 or 20 shocks to which 

 he had been annually accustomed for a course of years in Smyr- 

 na. He thinks that the rumbling may have continued half a 

 minute, and that its course was from N. W. to S. E., nearly in 

 the direction of the strata. It was perceived at Westbrook, Had- 

 dam and Wethersfield. 



Mr. B. thinks that the earthquakes in Connecticut all proceed 

 from the Moodus Hill, called Mount Tom. He observes that 

 Smyrna was destroyed by an earthquake A. D. 177, and that the 

 catastrophe has been several times repeated, " but generally speak- 

 ing, its numerous annual earthquakes extend over a circumference 

 of probably not more than 20 or 30 miles, and are ordinarily so 

 slight as barely to arouse one out of sleep, and seldom if ever 

 does any rumbling accompany the shock." " Besides their limited 

 extent, there are hot springs about five miles from the city, under 

 the foot of Mount Corea, which go to prove them of local origin." 



Nothing has, we believe, been suggested regarding the cause 

 of the Haddam convulsions, worthy of confidence. The old 

 story of fermenting or decomposing pyrites has been repeated, 

 but this cause seems quite inadequate to account for movements 

 extending at intervals through centuries. 



* In the Hartford and New Haven Congregational Observer, of Aug. 29, 1840. 



