309 
JWtstettanen. 
SHOCK OB' AN EARTHQUAKE AT FLINDEIl’S ISLAND. 
Tire following account of an Earthquake at Flinders’ Island, reported 
by Joseph Milligan, Esq., J.lh.the Commandant, to J. E. Bicheno, Esq., 
appeared in the Hobart Town Courier newspaper of 8th October, 1844 : 
“ Flinder's Island, 19 th Avgust, 1814. 
« It cannot be uninteresting to you to bo informed that there was dis¬ 
tinctly felt in every house on this settlement last night, about half-past 
eleven o’clock, a slight shock of an earthquake. I had gone to sleep 
upon a couch in the drawing-room in this house a few unnntes after 
eleven o’clock, and could not have slept more than half-an-hour, when 
I was awakened by a deep loud rumbling sound, apparently very near, 
and bv a tremulous motion of the couch on which I lay. The agitation 
was such as to shake a round table in the centre of the room and other 
loose furniture very audibly. There was no vibration of the panes of 
glass in the windows as there usually is during concussion of the at¬ 
mosphere from electric explosions when close. . . 
“ There was not any lightnmgor thunder before or after in the course 
of the night., as I very satisfactorily ascertained. 
“ The sound which seemed to travel centrally, and it at all laterally in 
a S. E. direction, lasted for perhaps about two seconds, and the trepida¬ 
tion rather longer. . 
“ My cook told me this morning that the plates and dishes in. my 
kitchen clattered quite loud, and the same it is said occurred in every 
cupboard and dresser on the settlement, though parties differ as to 
the direction which the accompanying sound took. 
“ The weather was on Friday beautifully clear ; on Sunday it was still 
fine, but the wind was extremely light, and blew at intervals from every 
point of the compass. Yesterday (Sunday) it was dark and threatening, 
and in the course of tlic afternoon and night hall-an-inch of rain fell, 
with the wind fresh from about \Y r . S. W. The mercury in the baiometer 
had fallen a little on Saturday, and yesterday it fell during the day three- 
tenths of an inch (from 29.80 to 29.50). Last night it again lell six¬ 
teen one-hundredths of an inch. In the course of to-day it lias risen 
eleven one-hundredths of an inch, and it blows fresh from the westward 
with a clear sky. _ , . .. . 
“ It may be worth while to compare these facts with observations made 
in Van Diemen’s Land or elsewhere, should the same agency have been 
manifested anywhere in our vicinity.” 
u There does not appear to have been any particular change m the 
barometer upon the occasion of this phenomenon. A Hobart, On the 
18th August, it was 29,90 early in the morning, and fell during the day 
to 29.80. The weather was misty, but without ram. lhe wind stood 
at N. E. during the day, but in the evening veered to b. E. At Flin- 
der’s the barometer appears to have been about the same, but the wind 
at W. S. W.” 
In a subsequent letter from Mr. .T. Milligan to Mr. ft. C. Gunn, lie 
says, “ with respect to the earthquake I can only asceitain, in addition 
to the facts communicated to Mr. Bicheno, and which appeared in the 
Hobart Town Courier, that the shock was distinctly felt at Goose Island. 
The person in charge of the lighthouse there, Mr. liar burgh, formerly 
