72 The Causes and Phenomena of Earthquakes. 



Now, without regarding with too much favour the conclusions 

 of Count de Bylandt Palstercarnp, who asserts that in one 

 instance eruptions took place on the opposite extremes of the 

 earth's diameter at the same moment (implying, in his opinion, a 

 source in the very centre of the globe, or that there have been 

 earthquakes that have traversed in a right line thousands of 

 miles), we have facts on record which prove to us that vast areas 

 may be simultaneously, or continuously, affected by one eruption 

 or shock. 



Thus in a.d. 860 all Europe was shaken at once ; and on 1st 

 November, 1755, when Lisbon was destroyed and 60,000 persons 

 perished in a few minutes, though the shock was only felt very 

 slightly in Oporto, yet it was felt over a surface four times 

 greater than all Europe — in the Alps, in Sweden, in the West 

 Indies, in the north of Africa, and in Canada; and in April, 1815, 

 the island of Sumbawa, in the Malayan Archipelago (to the 

 north-west of Australia), was affected by the eruption of Tomboro 

 moantain, the sound having been conveyed through the earth to 

 Sumatra 970 geographical miles in a straight line, and to Ternate 

 720 miles off. Ashes or triturated materials from the eruption 

 fell in Java 300 miles off, and finer portions fell in Amboyna and 

 Banda 800 miles east of the crater. Thus the whole of the 

 Moluccas, Sumatra, Java, Celebes and Borneo were alike affected. 



If there had been any persons in Australia who could have 

 recorded it, it is very probable that the norbh-west part of this 

 continent, to upwards of 300 miles inland, might have been added 

 to that area. 



But when it is asked, as it has been by some, whether the 

 earthquake felt here on 18th Juue last was connected with the great 

 eruption of Mo una Loa in the Sandwich Isles, it must be stated 

 that it is very highly improbable ; for the two localities are nearly 

 4200 miles apart on differeut sides of the Equator, and if any 

 reliance is to be placed on Palstercarnp' s theory, out of the line 

 of connection. 



But, though the sea wave broke on the shores of California 

 no indication of the kind was exhibited here, or could have taken, 

 place within a few hours. And it is impossible to connect shocks 

 of earthquake after so long an interval as more than two months. 



Yet I must not omit to remark that, in a letter received by me 

 in July, a distinguished geological friend in New Zealand states, 

 from experience of shocks in that country, that ours nearly 

 amounted to a dangerous earthquake, and that those who are 

 familiar with such matters prophesied that the terrestrial dis- 

 turbance was progressing westwards, and had possibly passed 

 New Zealand. 



That it was a severe shock I am willing to admit ; but we must 

 wait awhile before we can speculate upon its connection with any 



