1852.] HUNT EARTHaUAKE IN THE AZORES. 3 



poor huts, of which only a few were damaged. The shock was much 

 less felt at the east end. 



Phenomena observed at Sea. — Mr. Wills, the master of the ship 

 Snake, of Portsmouth, then between St. Michael's and Terceira, was 

 sitting in his cabin, when he felt a sudden movement as if the sails 

 were violently shaking in the wind. He ran on deck and found them 

 all full and the movement ceased. 



Mr. Ham, the master of the ship Lady Elizabeth, of London, then 

 off the south-west part of St. Michael's, had just lain down, when he 

 felt a shock as if the vessel had run down a boat. He immediately 

 went on deck, but found that the disturbance had ceased. 



The earthquake was felt by the crews of the ships in the port, as 

 if their chains had suddenly parted, and by masters going off in boats 

 from the shore ; but it was not felt on board ships then close off the 

 east end of the island, nor by one which was twenty miles east of 

 St. Mary's. 



Terceira ; 1° 33' West of the Point of Observation at St. Michael's. 

 Reported by Mr. Vice-Consul Read. 



Point of Observation. — The chief town of Angra*, close to the sea, 

 at an elevation of about 30 feet, on an ascent which reaches in about 

 two miles to the base of the central ridge of the island, which in this 

 part rises into peaks of between 2000 and 2500 feet above the sea. 



Thtie and Phenomena. — At five minutes before ten o'clock p.m., by 

 Mr. Read's watch (10*^ I'" at St. Michael's?), as well as by the con- 

 current testimony of his acquaintances, a strong shock was felt which 

 lasted about six seconds, or, as some suppose, from the time occu- 

 pied by them in rising from bed and going to windows and doomcays 

 for safety, about ten seconds. Mr. Read, judging from the motion 

 felt by him and the noise of the walls and roof, remarked at the time 

 that there was a sensible oscillation from north to south, and a round- 

 handled seal in his office was afterwards found to have fallen to the 

 southward. There was no subsequent disturbance. 



Effects. — No new damage, with one exception, appears to have 

 been caused by this earthquake ; but the fissures of former ones were 

 reopened in several private and public edifices. In one house outside 

 the town, the stone window-sills and the wall imder them were cracked 

 on the south side ; but the other walls were not injured. No damage 

 has been observed in the walls of gardens, which, as is generally the 

 custom in these islands, are built of loose stones and are about 10 

 feet high. 



Phenomena observed at Sea. — The " Snake " being bound to Ter- 

 ceira, from which place she came to St. Michael's, the master re- 

 ported to Mr. Read that he had felt the earthquake without knowing 

 what it was. It was also felt by a boat on her way from Pico to 

 Terceira, but not by the ships at anchor in the port. 



No subterraneous noise was heard after, during, or before the dis- 

 turbance. 



* For an account of the earthquake that destroyed Praya and injured Angra in 

 1841, see Mr. Hunt's Communication in the Proceed. Geol. Soc. vol. iii. p. 563. 



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