S02 Mr Tartt on the Earthquakes In South Carolina. 
lying- A stack of ehimnles was struck with such tremendous 
■violence., that, falling on the roof, it forced its way through the 
house to the ground, precipitating the floors along with it. The 
hed fell with them ; the ladies escaped without injury ; but 
ihe negro girl beneatli it was. crushed to pieces. 
In another instance, a young female who was attending her 
dying mother, was carried by the hurricane from the room in 
which she sat, and dashed against a building at a very considej-ar 
ble distance. 
In the interval between this calamity and tire concussions of 
the earth, (the first of which occurred on the 16th of Decemr 
ber), 'various meteors and balls of fire, of diflPerent sizes and apr 
pearances, were observed. One of them, of a magnitude calcu- 
lated to excite alarm, was seen by spectators who were an hunr 
dred miles asunder, about 3 o’clock on the evening of the Slst 
November, moving with great rapidity in a south-west direction. 
It illuminated the ground and the surface of the waters, as if a 
torch of burning matter had been passing over them, and was 
conjectured, though it must have been vaguely, to have been 
about ten or fifteen feet in diameter. The season was unusual- 
ly warm. Large apples, the produce of second crops, were 
seen in November ; and on several plantations there were second 
crops of rice, which had not occurred for forty years. It may 
also be remarked, that there was considerably less thunder du- 
ring the year 1811 than usual ; the number of days, which com^ 
monly averages 60, having only amounted to 38. 
On the morning of the 16th of December, about 5 minutes 
before 3, the first shock was felt. It awoke me from my sleep ; 
and was said to have been preceded by the usual rattling noise. 
Being unapprehensive of such an event, my first impression was 
that the house was falling, and the cracking of its timbers 
strengthened me in this impression. Proceeding down stairs, 
however, and the noise having subsided, I began to be doubtful 
how far I nlight be under the influence of some mental delu- 
sion ; and, returning to my bed, I found it still rocking from 
the effect of a second shock which took place about 3 o’clock. 
And a third and fourth, at 3 minutes before and 10 minutes past 
8 o’clock, left me perfectly satisfied as to the cause of .what 
had occuiTedo 
