OF THE 22nd of apkil, 1884. 
27 
fact that there is in general no one motion standing out from the 
rest as greatly larger than those which precede and follow it. The 
direction of motion varies irregularly during the disturbance—so 
much so that in a protracted shock the horizontal movements at a 
single station occur in all possible azimuths. The duration, that 
is to say the time during which the shaking lasts at any one point, 
is rarely less than one minute, often two or three, and in one case 
in the writer’s experience was as much as twelve minutes.” 
After examining the effects of the Essex earthquake on buildings 
and carefully considering the records sent in, I have come to the 
conclusion that it differed in no respect from the shocks experienced 
in Japan. I believe it commenced with a series of small vibrations 
which gradually increased in amplitude until the shock came, and 
then gradually diminished. I may mention the case of an observer 
at Heybridge who was sitting in his office, on the wall of which a 
T-square was hanging on a nail. He happened to be watching it, 
when to his surprise he saw the T-square moving slowly to and fro, 
and while he was wondering what caused it, the shock arrived. It 
was afterwards found that the plane of the wall on which the 
T-square hung was in the direction that the disturbance would 
travel, so that in fact the whole building was moving slowly to and 
fro before the shock arrived; and this tended to show that the 
movement began gradually, like the Japan earthquakes. The 
records received are very untrustworthy for determining how long the 
shaking lasted, and also the number of shocks felt (as few people 
were able to discriminate between the number of shocks and the 
number of vibrations), but after carefully considering the evidence 
received, I came to the conclusion that the shaking lasted from two 
to thirty seconds, and also that it was pretty certain that there 
were at least two distinct series of vibrations separated by a short 
interval. With regard to the damage caused by the earthquake, 
of which a detailed account is given in the report, I may mention 
that in twenty-four parishes (besides Colchester) the number of 
buildings damaged was 1213, in addition to 20 churches and 
11 chapels. The main damage occurred along an axis about five 
miles in length, extending from Wivenhoe to Peldon, and com¬ 
prising an area of between 50 and 60 square miles, within which 
there is hardly a building that was not damaged in some way or 
other. Hound about Peldon and Abberton there is not a single 
cottage that did not receive damage, and the solid masonry of some 
of the houses was rent and fractured in such a way as to show that 
that was the centre of activity. Then at Wivenhoe again the 
damage done was very great, though it was much less in the 
intervening district, and it is a curious feature that although the 
damage was so great at Wivenhoe, it fell off very suddenly and 
abruptly. Perhaps the building which sustained the most injury 
is the church at Langenhoe, which was a complete wreck. 
A complete analysis is given in the report of all the evidence 
received relating to the earthquake, not only in Essex, but also 
from many other parts of England. 
