MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 181 



His Excellency the Governor judges that it must have lasted 

 at least one minute. 



The shock was more severely felt, as far as we can judge, 

 in houses built on solid rock than in those having their foun- 

 dations in soft stone or soU. The latter of course would 

 offer less resistance to the violent commotion of the earth, 

 and would yield readily to the pressure. But whether, as many 

 suppose, the more elevated parts of the Islands were more 

 severely visited than the less, is not so easy to determine. 

 Many think that the hills shook much more than the valleys. 

 We may, we fear, expect to hear that this earthquake was 

 widely felt. It is not very unusual for slight shocks to be 

 felt here ; but it is many years since one similar to that of 

 this night week was experienced in Bermuda. Generally, 

 the effect is so trivial as to escape the observation of all but 

 an experienced few ; very different was that of the 2d inst. 

 K the Colony at large will remember how recently some 

 of the fairest countries of Europe have been desolated by 

 the visitations of these dreadful phenomena, it can hardly 

 fail to acknowledge how much it owes to the goodness of 

 God for sparing Bermuda those awful results which else- 

 where have attended them- To feel the solid earth rock and 

 tremble under one's feet as if its huge vertebrse were suddenly 

 thrown out of joint, is a strange sensation,weU calculated to 

 overawe the hxmian mind, but it is perhaps yet more 

 amazing that such mighty commotions can come and go 

 without leaving a trace behind — not one heap of stones or 

 one riven wall to mark their progress. — Bermuda Royal 

 Gazette. 



Sharks of a large si^e are numerous on the outer reefs of 

 the Bermudas, and though specimens are occasionally killed. 



