37 1 
felt in England, November 18, 1795. 
w from this place, the shock was felt with equal force ; be- 
44 yond that distance, my information is too inaccurate to be 
44 stated here. 
“ The state of the atmosphere that accompanied this phas- 
44 nomenon is scarcely less remarkable than the earthquake 
44 itself. In the night of the 17th it had blown with some vio- 
44 lencefrom the south-west; in the morning the gale increased, 
44 and at eleven o'clock blew a tempest, accompanied with very 
44 dark dense clouds, and with a greater degree of warmth, or 
44 rather sultriness, than I ever recollect to have felt in Novem- 
44 ber, when there was no sunshine. About mid-day there fell a 
44 heavy rain, for an hour ; after which the wind abated, the 
44 clouds dispersed, and at six o'clock it was a serene calm even- 
44 ing. At the moment of the earthquake it was perfectly still, 
44 and continued so at one o'clock in the morning, with the 
44 same degree of warmth that had prevailed in the day. At 
44 eight o'clock the following morning it froze intensely, and 
44 the ground was covered with snow. 
44 It being very generally agreed to refer the most formidable 
44 earthquakes to subterraneous causes, it may be thought un- 
44 philosophical to search for causes of a different order from 
44 those that are known to produce similar effects; yet it must 
44 be admitted, that many circumstances in the preceding ac~ 
44 count conspire to connect the concussion with the very sin- 
44 gular state of the atmosphere accompanying it, and irre- 
44 sistibly to direct our inquiries to those sudden revolutions 
44 to which so vast a mass of elastic and heterogeneous fluid is 
44 liable." 
Having now laid before the Society all the circumstances 
observed in the late earthquake that appear to me to be w'or- 
