July, 1887.] ELLIOTT SOCIETY. 155 



Sunimerville, 23 miles from this Cit.y, and another on Saturday, the 28th. 

 These were also distinctly perceived by a few x)ersons in this City, l)nt did not 

 attract general attention here. 



It would thus appear that the earliest of the shocks that preceded the great 

 one occurred at least four months previouslv. 



II. I reside at No. 38, East side of Coming Street, 80 yards North of Went- 

 worth. The house is a wooden one, on a basement of brick, and at the time 

 of the great shock on the 31st August, I was seated at a table writing, in my 

 chamber in the third story, counting the basement as the first. I heard no- 

 thing of the booming or rattling noises which precede a shock, or if I did, in- 

 tent upon my work, I did not distinguisli them from the rumbling of the street 

 cars on Wentworth St., or from the rattling of the coaches and drays that 

 pass the corner of Montague St. , opposite my house. The first intimation I 

 had of the shock was from the horizontal agitation of my table, as if some one 

 was rapidly walking or running from one room to another. I immediately 

 recognized the character of the disturbance, and the rapid increase in the ex- 

 tent and violence of the agitation of the floor put the matter past doiibt. I at 

 once rose from my chair, put the lamp on the floor, and endeavored to make 

 my way to my chamber door in order to reach the door of the opposite chamber 

 where two of my daughters slept, the others being in the country. Staggering 

 across the violently agitated floor, I succeeded in reaching without falling the 

 door-post, at the same time calling to my daughters to come to me, if possible, 

 for I could go no farther without falUng. There, supporting them with my 

 left arm, and still clinging to the post with mv right hand, we passed the mem- 

 orable 15 seconds, in which was effected that terrible injurj"- to our City. "When 

 the violence and extent of the agitations had sufficiently subsided, we left our 

 post, put out the flames from two lamps that had been ignited by falling, 

 gathered up some clothing for those who had been roused from sleep, or else 

 prepared for rest, and descended the stairs to the story below, then through 

 the piazza and down the steps to the open space afforded by a large yard, the 

 whole building still distinctly swaying to and fro during our descent. I have 

 estimated at 15 seconds the interval during which the commotion was at its 

 height, I cannot extend it to more than 20 seconds, and during this interval, 

 the din was so great from the creaking of timbers, clattering of -^dndow sashes, 

 &c., that although we saw the chimney -tops fall from the house next South of 

 us, I do not think that any of us perceived the noise attending their fall, nor 

 felt the concussion which must have been produced by their striking the ground 

 45 feet below. The vibrations of the post grasped by my right hand, were of 

 course abundantly visible during those 15 seconds, and I estimated their extent 

 as not less than one inch and not greater than an inch and a half, and their 

 number at 6 to 8 per second, scarcely so many as 10 ; this of course means the 

 vibration of the vertical timbers of the building, in the third story, about 20 

 feet from the ground ; it does not necessarily imply equal or corresponding 

 motion of the ground on which the bailding stands. Of course several seconds 

 preceded Ihat interval of maximum agititiou, and many more followed it during 



