14 
east, in addition to Fort Charles, is all that remains 
of ancient Port Royal. It is very evident from the 
fact that the palisades are a chain of islands fortui- 
tously united by accumulations from the daily surf, 
that the outward and inward ledges of rock which 
give the precipitous depth of water entering and 
rounding into port, if shaken out of place or rent, 
to say nothing of being thrown down and sunk— 
would be sufficient for the destruction that ensued. 
The centre rocks were shaken but not dislodged ; the 
outer ones were moved out of place. Ali the inter- 
stitial land, slid away into the deep, and the inroll- 
ing sea, with the swell and surge that accompanies 
any shock of an earthquake, engulphed houses and 
inhabitants in the four to seven-fathom depth in 
which they lie buried. Fort Charles, that edged the 
sea north and south, now stands midway between 
wide borders of new land. Chocolate Hole, with 
some more of the old deep sea, is now the garrison 
parade. The outer edges of the spit, that is the pa- 
lisades as they are at present, slip immediately inte 
deep water. A large vessel, under sail to her an- 
chorage, could throw a shilling ashore, and the best 
fishing-ground for sharks and bonitos, is the white 
buoy on the Fort-shoal, out away in the harbour to 
the north-west of the Hospital. tome 
One can assign no determinate effect to the sub- 
teranean commotions of an earthquake. Sometimes 
the movement is by horizontal oscillations ; some- 
times upward and downward by perpendicular up- 
liftings, as if an explosive force had suspended the 
action of gravitation, and this force terminates sen- 
