Further Notes on the Earthquake. 369 



band was out, was so convinced that some one was lifting up 

 her bed, that she jumped out, and took refuge in another lady's 

 apartment. Another lady, in the same locality, experienced a 

 similar sensation in her bed; but she informs us that the 

 china and glass articles on the wash-hand stand were quiet, 

 although the passing of a railway train frequently makes them 

 jingle. 



Mr. Shirley Hibberd contributes the following letter : — 



" My residence at Stoke Newington is on a clay soil, overlying a 

 deep stratum of sand. It has recently, on the south side, been con- 

 nected with a branch of the northern high level sewer. In the house 

 •are a few foreign birds, and amongst them a pair of Australian 

 ground paroquets, which occupy a cage in a parlour on the south 

 side of the house. My bed-room is on the north side, where all the 

 brickwork of the foundation is in immediate contiguity with the 

 clay, whereas on the other side the foundations comprise a con- 

 siderable extent of cellarage and tunnelling. On the morning of the 

 6th of October I was sitting beside a cheerful fire in the bed-room, 

 writing till some time after three a.m. I then turned down the lamp, 

 and got into bed, and almost immediately got out again, and hurried 

 down with the lamp in my hand to receive a supposed visitor, who 

 appeared to have entered at a bound. Mrs. Hibberd was full 

 awake at the time, and the impression she received from the dis- 

 turbance was that a burglar had entered at the window of the 

 parlour where the paroquets are kept ; and, stepping on the edge of 

 the table, had come down, table and all, with a crash. There has not 

 been much said about the effect of the earthquake on animals, and I 

 mention my birds in order to say that tbe alarm occasioned by the 

 shock was sustained by the paroquets, which commenced screaming 

 most vociferously, and as I never heard them before. The search for 

 burglars required me to pass " Old Poll," who was awake and listen- 

 ing ; " Trot," the cockatoo, who was ditto. I next passed my 

 meteorological instruments, which I always look at from habit, under 

 any and every circumstance, and I noticed that the barometer had 

 not moved a hair's-breadth since last marked eighteen hours pre- 

 viously. I next encountered the screaming birds, expecting to find 

 with them a grim human intruder. The poor birds were fluttering 

 and screaming in a most painful manner, but a few kind words com- 

 posed them, and once more we were quiet. The next occurrence 

 was a repetition of the original shock in a very subdued manner — a 

 sort of dull " thud ;" then we noticed simultaneously that some large 

 trees near the house were shedding their leaves, as if agitated by 

 wind, though there was not a breath stirring. The time of these 

 occurrences was between 3"20 and 3'30 ; the exact time was not 

 noted, for the idea of burglars was so distinctly before our minds 

 that our attention was almost wholly directed to discover whether 

 we were really favoured with an inquisitive visitor. Had I suspected 

 an earthquake, I might, being awake at the time, having a second wit- 

 ness at hand, having also a fire, light, time-piece, barometer, and other 



