MEMOIRS
OF THE
BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY.
I.  VOLCANIC MANIFESTATIONS IN NE   ENGLAND: being an enumeration of the principal Earthquakes from  1638 to 1869.  By WILLIAM T. BRIGHAM, A.M.
Read April 7th, 1869.
ALTHOUGH no recent or noteworthy manifestation of either seismic or volcanic force
has made the present an especially appropriate time to review the records of the past, and
collect the scattered and imperfect accounts of such seismic phenomena as have been noticed in New England in the comparatively short period covered by the observation of
civilized nations, yet the steadily increasing interest in these studies will, perhaps, render
useful a compilation of such facts as possess historical authenticity, which may serve as a
basis for the observations which must be made in the field.
M. Alexis Perrey, the distinguished savant of Dijon, has published' in his series of local
catalogues a tolerably complete list of the earthquakes which are said to have taken place
in the central and eastern part of North America, but his work is not easily obtained.
Professor Williams, also, in the Memoirs of the American Academy,2 has collected much
valuable material; and Professor Mallet's catalogue,3 and many fragmentary scientific and
historical papers contain nearly all the rest that is known of the surface indications of
that power which has in ages long past done so much to mould the surface of New
England.
Indian tradition gives us nothing of any value, for people in an uncivilized state do not
note the paroxysmal changes of Nature, though the weather signs are often carefully
observed.  The early settlers in New England were men of little leisure, whose whole life
was a battle against stubborn nature and sinful man, and the earthquake shock was a
slight thing beside the abundant harvest of a cornfield, or the erection of the town stocks.
Where the hand of the Lord led them  they were willing to go, and where His hand was
seen in the tremor of the mighty earth a record was made, but much as the record of
some pest, or a great drought.
1 Annales de la Societe d'Emulation des Vosges, t. vII, 2   3 Catalogue of Recorded Earthquakes, from 1606 B. C. to
cah. 1850.                                  A. D. 1850. 1853.
2 Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. I, p. 260. 1785.
MEMOIRS BOST. SOC. NAT. HIST. VOL. XI.  I




2                                    WILLIAM  T. BRIGIIAM
1638.     Eighteen years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth they felt the first earthquake most of them had ever experienced. In Bradford's History is the following
account: 1
"This year (1638) aboute ye 1. or 2. of June was a great & fearfull earthquake; it was in this place heard
before it was felte. It came with a rumbling noyse, or low murmure like unto remoate thunder: it camie from
ye norward, & pased southward.  As ye noyse aproched nerer, the earth begane to shake and came at
length with that violence as caused platters, dishes, & such like things as stoode upon shelves, to clatter and
fall downe; yea persons were afraid of ye houses them selves. It so fell oute yt at ye same time diverse of
ye cheefe of this towne were mett together at one house, conferring with some of their fiiends that were
upon their removall from ye place, (as if ye Lord would herby show ye signs of his displeasure, in their shaking a peeces & removalls one from an other.)  However it was very terrible for ye time, and as ye men were
set talking in ye house, some women & others were without ye doors, and ye earth shooke with yt violence
as they could not stand without catching hould of ye posts & pails yt stood next them; but ye violence lasted
not long. And about halfe an hower, or less, came an other noyse & shaking, but nether so loud nor strong
as ye former, but quickly passed over, and so it ceased. It was not only on ye seacoast, but ye Indeans felt it
within land; and some ships that were upon ye coast were shaken by it. So powerfull is ye mighty hand of
ye Lord, as to make both the earth & sea to shake, and the mountaines to tremble before him when he
pleases; and who can stay his hand? It was observed that ye somers, for divers yeares togeather after this
earthquake were not so hot & seasonable for ye ripning of corne & other fruits as formerly; but more could
& moyst, & subject to erly & untimely frosts, by which, many times, much Indean corne came not to maturitie; but whether this was any cause, I leave it to naturallists to judge."
Johnson, in his "Wonder-working Providence of Sion's Saviour in  New  England,"2
describes the event as follows, and it will be noticed that his account adds several particulars to that of Bradford:
"This yeare, the first day of the Fourth Month, about two of the clock in the afternoone, the Lord caus'd
a great and terrible Earthquake, which was general throughout all the English Plantations; the motion of the
earth was such, that it caused divers men (that had never known an Earthquake before) being at work in the
Fields, to cast downe their working tooles, and run with gastly, terrified lookes, to the next company they
could meet withall; it came from the Westerne and uninhabited parts of this Wildernesse, and went the
direct course."
Winthrop3 fixes the time of day a little later and gives some vivid details. He says:
" Between three and four in the afternoon, being clear, warm weather, the wind westerly,
there was a great earthquake. It came with a noise like a continued thunder, or the
rattling of coaches in London, but was presently gone.  It was at Connecticut, at Narragansett, at Pascataquack, and all the parts round about. It shook the ships which rode
in the harbor, and all the islands. The noise and the shakings continued about four
minutes. The earth was unquiet twenty days after by times." Had there been observers
farther to the north and west we might have learned more of the extent of territory
shaken and the direction of the vibrations; but so little interest did natural phenomena
excite in those days -unless indeed they could be connected with some poor witch, or
used as weapons by the belligerent clergy, -that the scanty records remaining do not
give much information of any value. One historian says the vibration seemed to come
from the north, another from the west.  There were two shocks, and the paroxysm  ended
in a series of feeble vibrations extending over twenty days.
1 Page 366, Edition of the Massachusetts Historical So-   2 Chap. xIr. Chap. v, p. 107, Poole's Edition.
ciety.                                               8 Vol. I, p. 265, Savage's Edition.




ON NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                                             3
March 5, 1642-3, "At seven in the morning, it being the Lord's day, there was1642
a great earthquake.  It came with a rumbling noise like the former, but through
the Lord's mercy it did no harm." 1 Governor Winthrop seems to be the only one of
our early historians who notices this earthquake; neither Mallet nor Von Hoff include it
in their catalogues.
From the town records of Newbury we have the following:
June 1st. "Being this day assembled to treat or consult together about the well ordering of the affairs of
the towne, about one of the clocke in the afternoone, the sunn shining faire, it pleased God suddenly to raise
a vehement earthquake, coming with a shrill clap of thunder, issuing, as is supposed, out of the east, which
shook the earth and the foundations of the house in a very violent manner to our great amazement and wonder, wherefore taking notice of so great and strange a hand of God's providence, we were desirous of leaving
it on record to the view of after ages, to the intent that all might take notice of Almighty God and feare his
name."
A very slight shock was noticed in 1653 (October 29), but did not attract gen- 1653
eral notice, and is not mentioned  by Mallet in  his catalogue.  Five years later
occurred what is usually styled in the old histories, " a great earthquake."   Mor1658.
ton says,2 " This year there was a very great earthquake in New England," but no
account of the day, hour or direction  is given; perhaps it was April 4.3  Von  Hoff4
enumerates this in his list, but gives no further particulars, referring simply to the Philosophical Transactions as his authority; Mallet does the same.5 The same obscurity is over
the "great" earthquake of January  31, 1660, which is referred to in Professor166
Williams's paper already quoted.
January 26, 1662, three violent shocks were felt in New England; chimneys   1662.
were thrown down.  November 6, another in the same place.
February 5, N. S.  Morton tells us that "at the shutting in of the evening,  163s.
there was a very great earthquake in New England, and th'e same night another,
although something less than the former, and again on the seventh of the same month
there was another about nine of the  clock in  the morning."6  This earthquake was
severer in Canada than in the plantations of Massachusetts Bay, and Charlevoix assures us
that trees were uprooted, chasms opened, and the course of rivers changed.7 Clavigero,
in his "History of Mexico," 8 declares that it overwhelmed  a chain of mountains of freestone more than two hundred miles long, and changed that large tract into a plain; and
this has a singular confirmation in the "Journal des SGavans," 9 where, in a review of the
life of the celebrated Mary of the Incarnation, Superior of the Ursulines at Quebec, written by her son, is the following passage:
"Ce tremblement agita plus de quatrecent lieues de pais. Tadoussac, Quebec, Sillery, les trois Rivieres,
Montreal, les Hiroquois, l'Acadie, et la Nouvelle Holland en ressentirent les secousses * * *. Les effets en
furent si terrible et si prodigieux, qu'on auroit de la peine a les lire m6me dans ce Livre et beaucoup plus a
les croire, s'ils n'etoient arrivez de nos jours, et s'ils n'avoient pour temoins une infinite d'habitans de tous ces
1 Winthrop's History of New England, vol. ii, edition of    7 Charlevoix Histoire de la Nouvelle France. A mountain
1853, p. 112.                                       was thrown on to the Isle aux Coudres. See pp. 93, 95,
2 Memorial, p. 276.                                vol. I, English Translation.  Paul Dudley gives the year
8 Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, vol. v, p. 369.  1662. Philosophical Transactions, xxxIx, p. 64. See Von
4 Chronik der Erdbeben und Vulcan-ausbriiche, I, p. 307. Hoff Geschichte der Erdoberflache, t. II, p. 542.
5 Philosophical Transactions, vol. L, p. 9.         8 I have been unable to find the passage referred to.
6 Morton's Memorial, p. 289.                        9 Vol. vII, May, 1678, p. 103.




4                                   WILLIAM. T. BRIGHIAM
pals qui vivent encore. L'on voyoit des montagnes s'entrechoquer, d'autres se jettoient dans le grand Fleuve
de Saint Laurent; quelques autres se sont enfoncees dans la terre. I1 y en a eu qui se sont detach6es de leurs
fondemens, et qui ont avanc6 plus de cent brasses dans le Fleuve portant et retenant leurs arbres et leur verdure. Les Montagnes des deux cotez se sont perdues et 6galees aux Campagnes voisines plus d'une lieue sur
le Fleuve, et il y a un espace de plus de cent lieues tout remnpli de rochers et de montagnes qui s'est tellement
applani, qu'il fait aujourd'hui une grande plaine aussi egale que si elle avoit 6te dresse au niveau. On voit
depuis ce tems-la des Montagnes oh il n'y en avoit jamais eu; des Rivieres oh il y avoit auparavant des
Forets, et on trouve des Lacs et des Fleuves oh l'on voyait des Montagnes inaccessibles."
No contradiction followed the publication of this remarkable statement in Paris.  The
substance of Charlevoix's account is as follows: About half past five in the evening, the
heavens being very serene, there was suddenly heard a roar, like that of a great fire.
Immediately the buildings were shaken violently, and doors opened and shut of themselves with a great slamming.  Bells rung without being touched, and walls split asunder,
while the floors separated and fell down.  The fields were raised " like precipices," and
mountains seemed to be moving out of their place.  Animals were terrified and uttered
strange cries.  For nearly half an hour the trembling lasted, a most unusual time, but it
began to abate in a quarter of an hour after it first began.  The same evening, about
eight o'clock, there was another equally violent shock, and within half an hour two others
less violent.  The next day, "' about three hours from  the morning, there was a violent
shock, which lasted a long time; and the next night some counted thirty-two shocks; of
which many were violent."  Nor did these earthquakes cease until the July following.'
New England and New York were shaken, as well as Canada, but in a less degree, and
the whole territory convulsed, so far as can be learned, extended nearly three hundred
miles from east to west, and half as many from  north  to south.  Sometimes the shocks
were sudden, at other times they came on gradually; some seemed to be vertical, others
undulatory.  Springs and brooks were dried up, or became sulphurous; and some had
their channel so completely altered as hardly to be recognized. Between Tadoussac and
Quebec " two mountains " were shaken into the St. Lawrence, and perhaps from a similar
accession of material the Island Aux Coudres became larger than it was before.  The
course of all these waves was from the northwest when felt in New England, and the centre of disturbance was not far from  the ancient volcano of Montreal.  On the shores of
Massachusetts Bay, houses were shaken so that pewter fell from the shelves, and the tops
of several chimneys were broken; but as many of the latter were of rough stone, they
were the more easily overthrown.2
From the Newbury record is the following: " January 26th.  There was an earthquake
at the shutting in of the evening."   One of the greatest in  New England; and on February 5th another.  The first shock continued about half an hour.  On the same day, at
evening, another, and they did not cease till July following.3
1665.    _February 24, 1665.  In  the neighborhood of Tadoussac and La Malbaye, in
1  Memoirs of the American Academy, vol.,  p. 264. a  Coffin's History of Newbury, p. 66. Probably the date
2 See also Frezier's Voyage, pp. 210, 211. Also Mac-  February 5, is simply a mistake from the change of style.
(Gregor's Travels in America.                     February 5, N. S., is the same as January 26, 0. S.




ON NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                                             5
October 15th of the same year, at 9h 30' P.M., preceded by a noise louder than that of
two hundred pieces of artillery, and lasting "' about the time of a Miserere." 
Earthquakes are mentioned in the years 1668, 1669, 1670 and 1706, but no account
has been preserved.2   Neither Mallet nor Von Hoff mention them.  Dr. Mather simply
speaks of those occurring in the last two years, and there was one on January 8,  1720.
1720, but all were so slight as to escape general notice, and. no particulars have
been recorded.
November 8, 1727. About forty minutes past ten o'clock in the evening, during   17
a perfect calm, clear air and  serene  sky, a heavy rumbling noise was heard.  At
first far off, it grew louder and in about thirty seconds the shock came. Houses shook
and rocked as if falling to  pieces.  Pewter and  china were thrown  from  their shelves.
Stone walls and chimneys were  shaken  down, and it was difficult for men to stand up.
The ground seemed to rise and fall as the vibration passed.  The shock commenced about
half a minute from  the  time  the noise was first heard, rose to its maximum  in about a
minute, and then  decreased  in  half a minute.  The direction  was from  northwest to
southeast.  At Newbury, and  about the mouth of the Merrimack River, the shock was
most violent.  Reverend Benjamin Colman, D.D., says:. " There  the earth  opened  and
threw up many cart-loads of a fine sand and ashes, mixed with some small remains of
sulphur; but so small that taking  up  some of it in my fingers and dropping it into a
chaffing-dish of bright coals, in  a dark  place, once in  three  times the blue flame of the
sulphur would plainly arise and give a small scent, and but a small one.  By this it seems
evident that it was a sulphurous blast which  burst open  the ground  and threw up the
calcined bituminous earth."  In the account Dr. Dudley sent to  the Royal Society,4 the
sulphurous smell is spoken of, and he says: " Persons of credit do also affirm  that just
before, or at the time of the earthquake, they perceived flashes of light."
An account written by Stephen Jaques is as follows: 
"On the twenty-ninth day of October, between ten and eleven, it being sabath day night, there was a
terabel earthquake. The like was never known in this land. It came with a dreadful roreing, as if it was
thunder, and then a pounce like grate guns two or three times close one after another. It shook down bricks
from ye tops of abundance of chimnies, some allmost all the heads.... All that was about ye houses trembled, beds shook, some cellar walls fell partly down. Benjamins Plumer's stone without his dore fell into his
cellar. Stone wals fell in a hundred plasis. Most peopel gat up in a moment. It came very often all ye
night aftar, and it was heard two or three times some days and nights, and on the sabath day night on ye
twenty-fourth of December following, between ten and eleven, it was very loud, as any time except y" first,
and twice that night aftar but not so loud. The first night it broke out in more than ten places in ye town in
ye clay low land, blowing up ye sand, sum more, sum less. In one place near Spring Island it blew out, as
was judged twenty loads, and when it was cast on coals in ye night, it burnt like brimstone."
Probably the smell of brimstone noticed was purely imaginary, and the earth or sand
thrown out was due to the agency of water pent up beneath the clay soil, since, as will be
seen below, the water which issued with it continued to flow for several days.
1 Relation de ce qui s'est pass de plus relarquables aux    4 Loc. cit. no. 437, vol. xxxix, p. 72.  Ie adds (p.
missions des Pdres de la Compagnie de Jesus en la Nouvelle  69): " Our-house-dogs were also sensible and afiected with
France en 1664 et 1665. Par Jerome Lallemant. p. 115 et  the earthquake; some of them barking, others howling and
suiv.                                                making strange and unusual noises."
2 Philosophical Transactions, no. 437, vol. xxxIx, p. 61.  5 Coffin's History of Newbury, p. 198.
8 Philosophical Transactions, no. 409, vol. xxxvI, p. 125.
MEMOIRS BOST. SOC. NAT. MIST. VOL. II.  2




6                                 WILLIAM  T. BRIGIAM
Mr. Henry Sewall, of Newbury, wrote to his kinsman, Judge Samuel Sewall, of Boston,
the following letter: 1
NEWBURY, November 21, 1727.
"Honored sir:
Thro' God's goodness to us we are all well, and have been preserved at the time of the late great
and terrible earthquake. We were sitting by the fire and about half after ten at night our house shook and
trembled as if it would have fallen to pieces. Being affrighted we ran out of doors, when we found the
ground did tremble, and we were in great fear of being swallowed up alive; but God preserved us, and did
not suffer it to break out, till it got forty or fifty rods from the house, where it brake the ground in the common near a place called Spring island, and there is from sixteen to twenty loads of fine sand thrown out
where the ground broke, and several days after the water boiled out like a spring, but is now dry, and the
ground closed up again. I have sent some of the sand that you may see it. Our house kept shaking about
three minutes."
It is said that several springs of water, and wells that were never known to be dry or
frozen, were sunk far down into the earth; and while some were dried up, others had
their temperature so altered as to freeze in moderate weather. Some had their water
improved, but others were made permanently bad.  Some firm  land became quagmire,
and marshes were dried up.  Several phenomena were observed a few days previous to
this earthquake, of a nature often observed preceding earthquakes in other countries,
especially in Campania.  One observer, the Rev. Mr. Allin, of Brookline, says: " Three
days before the earthquake there was perceived an ill-stinking smell in the water of several wells. Not thinking of the proper cause, some searched their wells, but found nothing that might thus infect them. The scent was so strong and offensive that for about
eight or ten days they entirely omitted using it. In the deepest of these wells, which
was about thirty-six feet, the water was turned to a brimstone color, but had nothing of
the smell, and was thick like puddle water."
Mr. Dudley, in the account already referred to, says: 2 "A neighbor of mine that had
a well thirty-six feet deep, about three days before the earthquake, was surprised to find
his water, that used to be very sweet and limpid, stink to that degree that they could
make no use of it, nor scarce bear the house when it was brought in; and imagining that
some carrion was got into the well, he searched the bottom, but found it clear and good,
though the color of the water was turned wheyish, or pale. In about seven days after
the earthquake the water began to mend; and in three days more it returned to its
former sweetness and color."  Several wells dried up just before the earthquake, and were
afterwards full again.
The extent of this shock seems to have been from  the Kennebeck to the Delaware,
although in both of these places the shock was slight. It was felt by vessels at sea off
the coast, and also at the extreme western settlements, but its true extent northwest and
southeast we have no means of knowing.  In "Smith's Journal" it is mentioned as a
noteworthy consequence of this uncommon alarm, that a revival of religion took place;
" forty out of one hundred and twenty-four" were the fruits of it in Rev. Mr. Emerson's
parish in Portsmouth, which was in the most disturbed district.
Several shocks were felt in northern New England for some months after this, but they
were slight and of short duration.  It will be remembered  that on the eighteenth of
1 Coffin's History of Newbury, p. 198.          2Philosophical Transactions, no. 437, vol. xxxix, p. 72.




ON NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                                           7
November, the city of Tabriz, in Persia, was destroyed by an earthquake, and seventyseven thousand people perished.l
The Rev. Matthias Plant, the minister at Newbury, kept a record of the shocks felt
from 1727 to 1741, and from this church record wrote an account to England, which was
published,2 and the essential part is here reprinted. The dates are all in old style:
October 29, 1727, being the Lord's-Day, about forty minutes past ten the same evening, there came a great
rumbling noise; but before the noise was heard, or shock perceived, our bricks upon the hearth rose up about
three quarters of a foot; and seemed to fall down and loll the other way, which was in half a minute attended with the noise or burst. The tops of our chimneys, stone fences were thrown down; and in some
places (in the lower grounds, about three miles from my house) the earth opened and threw out some hundred loads of earth of a different color from that near the surface, something darker than your white marl in
England.... It continued roaring, bursting and shocking our houses all that night. Though the first was
much the loudest and most terrible, yet eight more that came that night were loud, and roared like a cannon
at a distance. It continued roaring and bursting twelve times in a day and night, until Thursday in the said
week, and then was not so frequent; but upon Friday in the evening, and about midnight, and about break
of day upon Saturday, three very loud roarings; we had the roaring noise upon Saturday, Sunday, Monday,
about ten in the morning, although much abated in the noise.
November 7 being Tuesday, about eleven it roared very loud, and gave our houses a great shock; and continued shocking from three times to six every day and night, until the twelfth of November, when it was
heard twice in one hour in the afternoon, from 3h 30' to 4h 30',
November 13. Two hours before daybreak the roaring was loud, and shook the houses. Upon Wednesday
following, 2h 30' in the afternoon, there was a roaring, but not so loud. The noise and shocks continued five,
six, to ten times a week, until the seventeenth of December following; and then about half an hour past ten
in the evening, it roared very loud and shook our houses very much; another shock the next morning about
four o'clock, much abated.
January 3, 1727-28. About nine at night, an easy shock..
January 6. There were five shocks attended with the roaringfroim about nine at night to four on Sunday
morning; and some people told me, that lived in the low grounds,, that for the space of about half an hour it
continually kept roaring every half minute or minute.
Wednesday, January 24. About half an hour after nine at night it roared exceedingly loud, and was followed in half a minute with roaring much abated in the noise.
January 28, 6h 30' A.M., another easy shock, and another about ten the same morning, easy. On the same
night, about 1h A.M., a loud roaring and shock.
January 29. I heard it twice, though easy, that day.
January 30. About two in the afternoon, there was a very great roaring, equal to any but the first for terror;
it shook our houses so as that many people were afraid of their falling down; pewter, etc., was shook off our
dressers;.... the lead windows in the church rattled to such a degree, as that I thought they would all be
broke. And there was another shock the same day, about an hour and half after, though much abated.
February 21. About half an hour past twelve, A.M, a considerable loud roaring with a shock.
February 29. Such another.
Jiarch 17. About three in the morning an easy shock.
Miarch 19. At 1h 40' P.M., a small noise; at nine the same night a small noise with a shock.
April 28, 1728. At 5h P.M., a small noise but perceivable.
May 12. About 9h 40' a long and loud roaring, and shook the houses.
May 17. About 8h P.M., a long and loud roaring shook our houses.
May 22. Several small roarings in the morning; but about ten o'clock the same morning long and loud,
and shook our houses.
June 6 and 8. About three o'clock in each morning, a long and loud roaring.
1 At Salem, Nov. 4, a meeting was held in the house of the    A fast was appointed on the 21st of December on the same
first parish on account of the " terrible earthquake." Many account. ibid, p. 386.
attended. Mr. Fisk preached from I Peter, Iv, 17, 18.   2 Philosophical Transactions, no. 462, vol. XLII, p. 33.
Felt's Annals of Salem, p. 385.




8                                      WILLIAM T. BRIGIIAM
June 11. Nine in the morning a small noise.
July 3. About two in the morning.
Jeldy 23. About break of day, very loud and long; shook our houses. Besides these times I have mentionec, it has been often hea-rd by me, but the noise was small, so forbore to set them down.
Ml-arch 19, 1728-9.  Betwixt two and three P.M., it was loud and long, shook our houses, being repeated
twice in an instant; and this was the longest and loudest roaring, and the greatest shock that I ever heard,
the first excepted, and that upon the thirtieth of January. We had several small shocks in this interim.
September 8, 1729. About 31h 30' [P.M.?] it was loud and long.
September 29. About 4h 30' P.M., loud and long.
October 29. I heard it twice this night.  One of the times was about the same time of night the first
shock was [101 40' A.M.].
AVovember 14. About eight in the morning loud and long; attended with two bursts like unto two sudden
claps of thunder; shook our houses.
NVovember 27. About eight in the evening a very great roaring and a great shock. It was heard at
Ipswich, about fourteen miles distant.
Feb'ruary 8, 1729-30. About eight in the evening a small shock, about midnight loud and long, and gave
our houses a great shock.
Februtary 26. About ll 45' A.M., the noise was repeated twice in one minute; the first was loud and long,
and shook our houses equal to any but the first shock; the second noise was low and seeminglly at a distance.
April 12, 1730. About eight in the evening a very loud and long noise, and a great shock.
July 28. About 9h A.M., a sudden and loud roaring, and shock.
August 15. About 81 A.M., a shock of the earthquake, twice repeated in a moment of time.
November 6. It was loud and long, and gave my house a jar.
NTovember 14. About 91 A.M., a small noise and rumbling; no shock.
November 25.  About 81 20' P.M., a loud and long roaring, and gave my house a considerabble shock.
December 6. About 10" 45' P.M., it was loud and roa:red long, and made our houses jar..December 11. About 6'l 45' P. M., there was a sm1ll )burst, but shaked my lhouse.
December 12. About 1011 30' P.3., the earthquake did very mnuch shake our houses, without any noise or
roaring, more than ever before, the first time excepted. It was felt at Boston, forty miles, at Piscatacqua,
twenty-two miles, almost equal to what it was with us.
JdCnuZary 7, 1730-1. About seven at night it was loud and long, shook our houses.
Jatnuary 11. About midnight loud and long, shook our houses.
iMcrchl 7. About five in the evening we heard the noise, but no shock.
iacy 28, 1731. About nine in the morning I heard the noise of the earthquake very distinctly, but could
not perceive that it shook.
July 5. About sunrise it was loud and long, shook our houses.
August 21. Nine o'clock in the evening the noise was small and short.
October 1. About eleven at night loud and long, shook our houses.
February 7, 1731-2.  About seven at night a great shock, shook our houses.
September 5, 1732. About noon we had a severe shock, which was perceived at Boston and Piiscataquac,
but attended with little or no noise.  The same earthquake was heard at Montreal, in Canada, at the same
time and about the same hour of tle day, and did danlmage to one hundred and eighllty-five houses, killed seven
persons, and hurt five others; and it was heard there several times afterwards, only in the nighlt, as tile newspapers give us this account. [See below for the extent of this shock.]
December 30. In the morning we lhad a shock, and it had been heard by some people several times within
three weeks before.
MJcrch 1. A loud and long noise of it.
October 19, 1733. A loud and long noise about midnight.
Jcazuary 16, 1733-4.  About 1011 20' P.M., a loud and long roaring.
Jne 29, 1734. About 3h 15' P.M., there was somewhat of a noise of it.
October 9. About 10  20' A.M., a small shock.
ATovemberz 11 olr 12, for it was about micnight, we hadl the loudlest noise and greatest shock, exceplt thle filrst;
it was long, very awful and terrible.
Novemnber 16.  About six in the morning there was a small shock.




ON NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                                           9
February 2, 1735-6. About a quarter of an hour before six in the evening there was a pretty loud noise
and shock.
March 21. About half an hour past ten in the morning it was somewhat loud.
July 13, 1736. About 9h 45' A.M., the noise of it was loud.
October 1. About 1h 30' A.M., it was long and loud, and a great shock twice repeated in an instant.
November 12. About two in the morning there was a shock with the noise, and about six the same morning, it was something louder.
February 6, 1736-7. About 4h 15' P.M., we had a considerable shock.
September 9, 1737. About 10h 20' A.M., it was very loud and long, and shook our houses very much.
December 7. A little before eleven in the night the ground shook very much, but [we] heard no noise.
Upon the same seventh of December, at New York, they had three severe shocks of an earthquake in the
night; it threw down there some chimneys, and made the bells to toll so as to be heard. At the same time
the said shock and noise was felt and heard in many other places.
August 2, 1739.1  We had a great shock; it made my house shake much, and the windows jar. It was
about half an hour past two in the morning; I think I never heard but two other louder or longer, or greater.
December 14, 1740. About 6h 35' A.M., there was heard a pretty loud noise of the earthquake.
January 18, 1740-1. About 4h A.M., there was heard the noise of the earthquake.
January 25, 1740-1. About ten minutes before four in the afternoon, there was a shock of the earthquake
with a loud rumbling noise. This is the last that has been heard (and I pray God I may never hear any more
such, and so long). I have omitted to set down some that were small, or such as I did not hear myself; I
was very exact to the time, so that what account I have sent you is most certainly true. * * * And although the first night was the most terrible, as the surprise was sudden; yet there never happened one shock
amongst us but what occasioned some alteration at that time in every person's countenance or constitution;
and which way soever any person's face happened to be, that way the noise of the earthquake appeared to
him. * * * These frequent repetitions of the roaring and shocks of the earthquake were upon Merrimack
River, and seldom extended above seven or eight miles distance from, or twenty or thirty up the said river,
those instances only excepted which I have mentioned in the relation; and the first shock of it was greater
with us than anywhere else in New England; and the tops of chimneys and stone fences were thrown down
only in these parts.2
It is said that on the Tuesday preceding September 15, 1728, a shock was felt at Newbury, at four o'clock A.M., preceded by a noise like thunder,8 but Mr. Plant does not
mention it.
January 30, 1728, at 2h P.M. a distinct shock was felt at Boston, but no damage 1728
was done.  From  November 9, 1727 to August 2, 1728, there were several slight
shocks felt in New England.
September 15, 1732.  A violent earthquake was felt in Canada, which did considerable damage at Montreal, as stated in the preceding list.  It came at eleven
o'clock A.M., and was attended with a rumbling noise.  A clock was stopped at Annapolis, Maryland, although the shock was slightly felt at Boston.4  In June, of the next year,
on the fourteenth, according to some authorities, it is said a shock was felt at Annapolis,
but there is no certainty that it took place.
On February 16, 1737, at 4h 30' P.M., shocks were felt at Boston.  December   1737
17, shortly before eleven o'clock at night, shocks were felt at New York (three
during the night) and  Boston, severe enough to throw  down several chimneys in the
former city, as described by Mr. Plant.  In October or November of the same year a very
1 Reverend Samuel Phillips, of Andover, notes in an al-   2 This letter was read February 21, 1742.
manac, under this date; " The night following was an earth-   8 Philosophical Transactions, vol. xxxvi, p. 127.
quake?" noise long and loud." Felt's Annals of Salem.  4 Philosophical Transactions, no. 429, vol. xxxvIII, p. 120.
MEMOIRS BOST. SOC. NAT. HIST. VOL. II.  3




10                                WILLIAM  T. BRIGHAM
slight shock was felt in Boston,l but it is only referred to as happening about seventeen
years before the great earthquake of 1755.
1741.    December 6, 1741, a small earthquake was felt at Boston, Dedham, Walpole,
and other towns about eight o'clock in the morning.2
On Sunday, June 13, 1741, at 10h 35' A.M., a very noisy earthquake took place, although the shock was not very great.  The day was bright and hot, and the barometer
fell slightly (two lines) in the morning.  There had been no rain since the twenty-third
of May, and the whole month was dry and hot.  Much lightning was observed during the
latter part of the month. At the time of the earthquake the barometer, as observed by
Professor Winthrop, stood at 21).94.3
1744 On liay 16, 1744, a considerable vibration felt at Quebec, Canada.  June 3, a
slight shock at Cambridge, Massachusetts.  December 23, a small earthquake was
felt about Newbury at noon.4
1746.    February 2, 1746, a shock was felt by some at Boston, between nine and ten in
the evening.  A very remarkable aurora borealis was observed a month later.5
1755 The year of the great Lisbon earthquake was long remembered in New England, and careful accounts were prepared at the time by Professor John Winthrop,
of Cambridge, and published both in this country and in England.6  The shock which had
destroyed the city of Lisbon, with so many of her inhabitants, was felt from  Iceland on
the north to Morocco on the south, from Bohemia to the West Indies. After an interval of
only eighteen days, and during this time slight shocks had been felt in Europe, as if the
vibration of the earth's crust still continued from  the first great impulse, New England
and the neighboring parts of America were shaken.  On Tuesday, November 18, 1755, at
4h 1  35",7 after a perfectly calm night, with the moon, which was near (thirty-six hours)
the full, shining brightly, the shock came. Like the other earthquakes of New England, this
began with a roaring noise from the northwest, like distant thunder. A man who was on the
road at the time, heard the noise and recognized its nature as it grew louder, and in about
a minute he felt the shock, which resembled a long rolling sea; and the swell was so great
that he was obliged to run and catch hold of somnethincr to prevent being thrown down.
The tops of two trees near him, one twenty-five and the other thirty feet high, waved, he
thought, ten feet. This motion was repeated, and then came a smaller one, and it was supposed that the shock was passed.  " But instantly," Winthrop says, "without a moment's
intermission, the shock came on with redoubled noise and violence, thoulgh the species of
it was altered to a tremor, or quick horizontal vibratory motion, with sudden jerks and
wrenches.  The bed on which I lay was now tossed from side to side; the whole house
was prodigiously agitated; the windows rattled, the beams cracked, as if all would presently be shaken to pieces.  When this had continued about two minutes it began to abate,
and gradually kept decreasing, as if it would soon be over; however, before it had quite
ceased, there was a little revival of the trembling and noise, though no ways conmparable
to what had been before, but this presently decreased, till all, by degrees, became still
1 Philosophical Transactions, vol. XLIX (pt. I), p. 443.  6 Philosophical Transactions, vol. L, (pt. I, 1 757), p. 1, et seq.
2 Silliman's Journal, vol. XL, p. 204.          7 Prof. Winthrop hadt regulated both his clock and watch
3 Philosophical Transactions, vol. L (pt. I), p. 14.  the previous noon, andl a tall glass tube that he had enclosed
4 Silliman's Journal, vol. XL. p. 205.        in the clock case for safety was thrown against the pendulum
6 Loc. cit.                                   at the first shock, stopping the clock.




ON NEW  ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                              11
and quiet. Thus ended this great shock. It was followed by another about an hour and
a quarter after, viz., at 5h 29'. This, though comparatively small, was very generally
perceived, both as to its noise and trembling, by those who were awake. On the Saturday eveninog following (November 22), at twenty-seven minutes after eight, there was a
third, more considerable than the second, but not to be compared with the first. And on
Friday, December 19, in the evening exactly at ten o'clock, there was a fourth shock,
much smaller than either of the former, though like them, preceded by the peculiar noise
of an earthquake.  The whole lasted but a few seconds; but the jarring was great enough
to cause the window shutters and door of the room in which I then was, to clatter. The
sky was perfectly clear. * * * These four are the only shocks that I have been sensible
of, from  the eighteenth of November last, to this date (January 10, 1756); though
more are said to have been felt in other parts of the country to the northward of us."
On the day of the first shock, nine hours after it was felt at Cambridge, or about two
o'clock in the afternoon, the sea withdrew from the harbor of St. Martin's in the West
Indies, leaving vessels dry, and fish on banks where the depth of water was usually three
or four fathoms. It would seem from this, and from the observation of the direction of
the sound, that the earthquake vibrated from northwest to southeast, and of course its
secondary impulses were transverse to this primary line. As it moved much slower than
sound, as was shown by the fact that it was heard nearly a minute before the motion
was felt, it would not be unreasonable to suppose that as sound would require two
hours and a quarter to go such a distance, the earthquake wave impeded by ocean currents, may have required nine hours to send its secondary waves to the harbor of St.
Martin's.
How far did the shock extend? Professor Winthrop says: 1  By the best information
that I can procure, the limit toward the southwest was Chesapeake Bay, in Maryland, the
shock having been felt on the eastern side of that bay and not on the western.  For the
other limit towards the northeast, we are informed that the earthquake was felt at Annapolis Royal, in Nova Scotia, though in a much less degree than with us. It shook off a
few bricks from the tops of some chimneys, but was not perceived by vessels on the
water."  It was not felt north of Halifax, but the army at Lake George perceived a slight
trembling; and in the Atlantic, seventy leagues to the east of Cape Ainn, the people on
board a vessel supposed they had run aground, so violent was the shock, but their lead
showed fifty fathoms of water. If we consider the tidal wave at the West Indies a result
as well as a consequent of this New England shock, we shall have a line nearly nineteen
hundred miles long, and the shortest diameter of the shaken region would be almost five
hundred miles, but the intensity of vibration rapidly diminished away from the central
line.
If all previously recorded earthquakes in New England were unimportant, and sent, as
Morton says, for " gentle warnings unto us to shake us out of our earthly-mindedness,
spiritual security and other sins, lest the Lord do come against us with judgment of this
kind in the sorest and worst sort of them," that of 1755 was one of great severity. In
Boston, the damage done was considerable, as is shown by Professor Winthrop.2  " Besides
the throwing down of glass, pewter, and other movables in the houses, many chimneys
1 Loc. cit. p. 9.                          2 Loc. cit. p. 1I.




12                             WILLIAM  T. BRIGHAM
were levelled with the roofs of the houses, and many more shattered and thrown down in
part.  Some were broken off several feet below the top, and, by the suddenness and violence of the jerks, canted horizontally an inch or two over, so as to stand very dangerously.  Some others were twisted or turned round in part.  The roofs of some houses
were quite broken in by the fall of chimneys; and the gable ends of some brick buildings
thrown down, and many were cracked.  The vane upon the public market house was
thrown down; the wooden spindle which supported it, about five inches in diameter, and
which had stood the most violent gusts of wind, being snapped off. A new vane upon
one of the churches was bent at its spindle, two or three points of the compass; and
another at Springfield was bent to a right angle.  A distiller's cistern, made of plank,
almost new, and very strong put together, was burst to pieces by the agitation of the
liquor in it; which was thrown out with such force as to break down one whole side of
the shed that defended the cistern from the weather."  Another account says "that in
some places, especially on the low, loose ground made by encroachments on the harbor,
the streets are almost covered with the bricks that have fallen." 1
All through the country stone fences were thrown down, but especially on a line extending from Montreal to Boston. New springs were opened and old ones dried up. At
Pembroke, Scituate and Lancaster, in Massachusetts, chasms opened in the earth; and at
Pembroke " there were four or five of them, out of some of which water issued, and
many cart loads of a fine, whitish and compressible sand were spewed." In the harbor
the shock was felt by those in vessels as if they were beating upon the bottom; and immediately after the earthquake large numbers of fish came to the surface, some dead and
others dying. This was doubtless due to the unusual disengagement of carburetted and
sulphuretted gases from the bottom, by the shock. Several slight shocks were felt for several months after this all over the country.
The motion was much greater in the upper parts of a house than in the lower. A key
was thrown from a shelf in a southwest direction, although it could have fallen any other
way except southeast. Some bricks which fell from the top of a chimney, a height of
thirty-two feet, were found thirty feet from the base of a perpendicular. The barometer
and thermometer underwent no change during the time of the earthquake.
Mr. John Hyde says: 2 "Many chimneys, I conjecture (from  observation) not much
less than an hundred, are levelled with the roofs of the houses; many more, I imagine
not fewer than twelve or fifteen hundred, are shattered and thrown down in part."
November 21 and December 19 slight shocks at Boston.
1756.    January 2, 1756, a shock was felt in Boston, according to Keferstein.3
November 16, 1756, about four o'clock in the morning a small earthquake,
which seemed not to last above two seconds. All I perceived was the rattling of the
window shutters by my bed's head.  The sky was covered.  Little or no wind.  The
weather moderate.  It was more sensibly perceived in other towns" [than Cambridge].4
December 4, 1()h P. M., a slight shock.5
July 8, 1757, at 2h 15' P. M., a considerable shaking was felt at Boston, but it
1757.
was of short duration.6
1 Philosophical Transactions, vol. XLIX, (pt. I), p. 441.  4 Observations of Professor Winthrop in Sillimnan's Jour2 Loc. cit.                               nal, vol. XL, p. 206.
3 Mallet's Catalogue.                      5 Loc. cit.         6Loc. cit.




ON NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                                         13
April 24, 1758, 9h 30' P.M., a trembling lasting  thirty seconds and preceded by subterranean noises which increased by degrees, was felt at Annapolis, Maryland, and more
feebly in Pennsylvania.'
February 2, 1758, a slight shock at Boston.  The date 1759 is given in the
1758.
Annual Register, quoted by Mallet.2
February 3, 1760, slight in New England.3
1760.
November 9, at Boston a slight tremor.4  More severe in the neighborhood.
February, at Boston, no mensual date given.5
March 12 and 16,6 in New England, especially at Boston, more violent on the
former date.  "Salem, March 12.  We were, last night, about quarter past two o'clock,
roused out of our beds by an astonishing earthquake, much such as that five years ago,
only that was a more terrible jar and this was undulating."7 The later date is perhaps a
mistake.  Professor Williams does not mention it, but describes the earthquake of the
12th as slight, commencing at 2h 30' A.M., with a slight shock, followed after a slight
pause by another more violent. The weather was moderate, perfectly calm, and a whitish
fog covered the horizon all around.  It was felt in all the neighboring States.8
November 1, 8" P.M., a shock was felt through Massachusetts and in New Hampshire. It
was preceded by the usual rumbling noise, and its course was from northwest to southeast.9
October 30, 1763, 4h 15' P.M., a shock was felt in Philadelphia which interrupted services in the churches, but did no damage.  Our only authority for this, however, is a
newspaper report.'
February 2, 1766.  In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and other parts of New   1766
England, accompanied by a remarkable meteor."
June 14, in Essex County, Massachusetts.
August 25, at Newport, Rhode Island, a violent shock lasting twenty-five minutes.
December 17, 6h 48' at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a violent shock.2  An earthquake
reported on February 2, 1776, did not occur.
November 29, 1783, about 10h 50' P.M., an earthquake was felt from  New   1783
Hampshire to Pennsylvania.  It was slight, and at Boston and in New England
generally, only one shock was felt, and that from north to south and continuing about one
minute.  At New York three shocks were felt about 9h, 11h P.M., and 2h A.M.  At Philadelphia, one about 9h P.M., and another about 2h A.M.13
January 2, 1785, 7h 15' A.M., a shock was felt at Cambridge, Massachusetts,  1785
and at the same time at Baltimore, Maryland.'4
November 29, 1786, 4h P.M., at Cambridge.'                                                 1786.
February 25, 1787, 1h A.M., again at Cambridge.'6                                          1787.
1 Collection Academique, t. vi, p. 688.            1 Silliman's Journal, vol. xxxix, p. 336.
2 Doddesley's Annual Register, vol. II. p. 88.    12 Annual Register, vol. x, p. 52. The Gazette de France,
8 Annual Register, vol. III, p. 92.              6 Mars, 1767, gives the date as 13, and the time 6h 40t P.M.
4 Gazette de France, Jan. 31, 1761.               13 Professor Williams, loc. cit. p. 279. The Gazette de
Journal Historique, Juillet, 1761, p. 65.       Leyde, Jan. 23, 1784, gives the time of the shocks at New
6 Annual Register, vol. iv, p. 117.              York as 10" 30' P.M., and 2' 30/ A.M.? Smith's Journal quoted( in Felt's Annals of Salem, p. 457.   14 Ephdmeris de Mannheinm, 1785, p. 582. Von Ioff, Ges8 Memoirs of the American Academy, vol. I, p. 278.  chichte der Verandurungen, t. Il, s. 541, merely refers to it
9 Loc. cit. p. 279.                                1 Loc. cit. p. 590.
10 Gazette de France, 9 Janvier, 1764.            16 Loc. cit. 1787, i. 350.
MEMOIRS BOST. SOC. NAT. HIST. VOL. II.  4




14                                  WILLIAM  T. BRIGHAM
The region  around East Haddam on the Connecticut River, a few miles below
1791.
Middletown, has been the scene of a series of local disturbances which have been
noticed since the country was settled, and are referred to by Indian tradition and their
name of the place, Morehemoodus, or place of noises.' The first shock of which the time
is recorded was on May 16, 1791, at eight o'clock in the morning, when it began by two
very heavy shocks in quick succession. The first was more violent. Stone walls were
shaken down, chimneys were untopped, latched doors thrown open, and a fissure in the
ground several rods long supposed to be then  opened as it was discovered soon after.
Thirty lighter shocks succeeded in a short time, and more than a hundred were counted
during the night.  At Killingworth, twenty miles distant," a Captain Benedict who was
walking the deck of his vessel, then lying in the harbor of that place, observed the fish to
leap out of water in every direction as far as his eye could reach." The atmosphere was
clear, and the very bright moon almost full.  On the night of the seventeenth, six more
shocks were felt.  The weather continued clear and warm.2
May 18, 1791, about ten o'clock, P.M., a shock was felt from  Boston to New York.
A few minutes after came another lesser shock, perceptible at a distance of seventy miles
from  East Haddam.8  There the tremor of the earth and the noise in  the atmosphere
were great.  Chimneys and stone fences were thrown down.  During the night there was
a succession of local shocks to the number of twenty or thirty. Stones of several tons
weight were removed from their places, clefts opened in the soil and in the rocks. In
Middle Haddam the shock was quite severe, and the direction seemed to be nearly from
west to east.  It is probable that the earthquake felt at Philadelphia and New York at the
same hour, was identical, and not on the sixteenth as reported.4
In December, an earthquake was felt at St. Paul's Bay, on the St. Lawrence, in Canada,
about sixty miles northeast of Quebec.  Walls were cracked and stones fell from the
houses.5
1792.     August 28, 1792, another earthquake was felt at East Haddam.  The forenoon
was rainy with an easterly wind which changed in the afternoon to southwesterly.
Warm and somewhat squally.  Shock at ten o'clock in the evening.   October 24, at one
o'clock in the morning three shocks were felt.  The weather was very pleasant.
1793.    January 11, 1793, at eight o'clock in the morning, another shock of the East
Haddam  series.  Weather warm  and pleasant.  July 6, another at six o'clock in
the morning.  Weather very warm  and damp; rain, with thunder, in the afternoon.
March 6, 1794, at two o'clock in the afternoon, there were two, and another at
eleven in the evening.  Atmosphere clear in the morning, but damp and hazy in
1 In a letter from Roger Williams to John W.inthrop, dated  (4th ser.) vol. IV, p. 229. Perhaps these traditions referred
at Providence, probably June 1638, after referring to the  to earthquakes from this same eastern Connecticut centre.
earthquake of that year, the writer continues: " The    2 Silliman's Journal, vol. xxxIx, p. 338.
younger natiues are ignorant of the like: but the ellder in-    3 Trumbull's History of Connecticut, vol. II, p. 92.
forme me that this is the 5th within these 4 score yeare, in    4 Hamburg Corresp. nr. 128; Moniteur, 23 Aoit 1791,
the land: the first about 3 score & 10 yeare since: the second  according to Mallet.
some 3 score & 4 yeare since, the third some 54 yeare since,   5 Transactions Royal Geological Society (London), 2d
the 4th some 46 since: & they allwayes observed either  vol. v, p. 97, note to Baddeley's Memoir.
plague, or pox, or some other epidemicall disease followed;    6 Silliman's Journal, loc. cit. Mallet confounds this with
3, 4, or 5 yeare after the Earthquake (or Naunaumemoauke)  the next.
as they speake."  Massachusetts Historical Collections,




ON  NEW  ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                                15
the afternoon.  It is reported that a shock was felt in Canada in 1796,'"a little before
March 6," and some rocks at Niagara Falls were dislodged.  Keferstein mentions this, but
the fact seems doubtful.'
Von Hoff mentions a shock felt at Philadelphia, March 17, 1800, and a severe    o.
shock is said to  have occurred at the same place November 29 of the same
2
year.  On December 25, a severe shock was felt at Newport, Boston, Concord, and elsewhere.3 In November, between the evening of the eleventh and morning of the twelfth, a
vibratory shock was felt.4  iMarch 1, 1801, an earthquake is reported.5  August 23, 
1802, a severe shock, attended with a noise like the rattling of a carriage on pavement, was felt at Richmond, in Virginia.  (Moniteur, 26 Vendemiaire, an 11.)  No other
authority has been found, and these letters of occasional correspondents are to be received
with great caution.
August 11, 1805, at seven o'clock in the evening, two slight shocks were felt at
the Haddam locality.  Wind southwest in the forenoon, and a thunder storm about
four, P.M.  Another was felt on December 30, at six o'clock in the morning.  The atmosphere was moist.6  At Weston, in Connecticut, a remarkable meteor exploded in December, 1807, and some have referred the concussion produced to an earthquake.7
The Haddam earthquakes were described by the Reverend Mr. Hosmer, of that town,
in a letter to Reverend Mr. Prince, of Boston, dated August 13, 1729.  Portions of his
account are here given: -" As to the earthquakes, I have something considerable and
awful to tell you. Earthquakes have been here, (and nowhere but in this precinct, as can
be discovered; that is, they seem to have their centre, rise and origin among us), as has
been observed for more than thirty years. I have been informed that in this place, before
the English settlements, there were great numbers of Indian inhabitants, and that it was
a place of extraordinary Indian powwows; or in short, that it was a place where the Indians drove a prodigious trade at worshipping the devil."
"Now whether there be anything diabolical in these things, I know not; but this I
know, that God Almighty is to be seen and trembled at, in what has been often heard
among us.  Whether it be fire or air distressed in the subterraneous caverns of the earth,
cannot be known; for there is no eruption, no explosion perceptible, but by sounds and
tremors, which sometimes are very fearful and dreadful.  I have myself heard eight or
ten sounds successively, and imitating small arms, in the space of five minutes.  I have,
I suppose, heard several hundreds of them  within twenty years; some more, some less
terrible.  Sometimes we have heard them  almost every day, and great numbers of them
in the space of a year.  Oftentimes I have observed them  to be coming down from the
north, imitating slow thunder, until the sound came near, or right under, and then there
seemed to be a breaking, like the noise of a cannon shot, or severe thunder, which shakes
the houses and all that is in them.  They have, in a manner, closed since the great earthquake.  As I remember, there have been but two known since that time, and those but
moderate." 8 Dr. Trumbull, in his history from which the above is quoted, writing about
the beginning of the present century, says: "A worthy gentleman, about six years since,
1 Bibliotheiqu Britannique, t. i, p. 86.     6 Felt's Annals of Salem, II p. 143.
2 Hamburg Correspondence, 1801, nr. 15.      6 Silliman's Journal, vol. XXXIX, p. 339.
8 Moniteur, 24 Ventose an 9.                 7 Loc. cit. p. 336.
4 Hanib. Correspond. nr. 25, 1802.            8 Trumbull's History of Connecticut, vol. II, p. 92.




16                             WILLIAM  T. BRIGHAM
gave the following account of them."  "The awful noises of which Mr. Hosmer gave an
account in his historical minutes, continue to the present time. The effects they produce
are various as the intermediate degrees between the roar of a cannon and the noise of a
pistol. The concussions of the earth, made at the same time, are as much diversified as
the sounds in the air.  The shock they give to a dwelling house, is the same as the falling
of logs on the floor. The smaller shocks produced no emotions of terror or fear in the
minds of the inhabitants.  They are spoken of as usual occurrences, and are called'Moodus noises.' But when they are so violent as to be heard in the adjacent towns,
they are called earthquakes. During my residence here, which has been almost thirty-six
years, I have invariably observed, after some of the most violent of these shocks, that an
account has been published in the newspapers of a small shock of an earthquake at New
London and Hartford. Nor do I believe, in all that period, there has been an account published of an earthquake in Connecticut, which was not far more violent here than in any
other place." Although these noises still continue, as will be seen by the list, yet they are
now infrequent. No explanation of their usually local character has been given, and the
Moodus Hill, or Mount Tom, seems never to have been accurately described by any one
acquainted with volcanic formations.  It will be noticed, however, that the geological
structure of this region is much disturbed.
1810.    November 9, 1810, at 9h 15' P.M., at Exeter, New Hampshire, an earthquake
was felt which was accompanied by a very unusual noise.  The account given by
Judge Samuel Tenney' is quite clear and distinct.  He was sitting by the fireside when
he heard a " very heavy and singular noise " directly under his feet; this was immediately followed by a tremendous report in the atmosphere, which did not, however, shake
the house. " It was instantly succeeded by the sound usually attending an earthquake,"
whatever this may be, " continuing with some little variation of intensity for some forty or
fifty seconds," and the vibrations which were felt at the same time were steady and not
violent.  No damage was done, although animals were frightened.  The explosion was
heard at Conway, seventy or eighty miles north of Exeter. The shock was most violent
between Haverhill and Portsmouth, and its course was northwest and southeast.  It was
felt on the water, and a vessel running into Portsmouth harbor seemed to those on board
to strike bottom.  Several persons in different towns who were awake, felt a second shock
towards morning.
The Moniteur newspaper contains2 a letter from Boston, dated November 14, which
states the time at 9h 3' P.M. The shock at Portsmouth lasted one or two minutes; windows were broken.  At Kennebunk there were several shocks during twenty seconds. At
Portland the vibration was very slight; the air was very calm until a moment before the
shock, when a violent wind arose suddenly.
The earthquakes which shook the Valley of the Mississippi from December 16, 1811, to
1813, were slightly felt to the east of the Alleghanies, and not at all in New England; but
during the continuance of this series another of the local disturbances was felt at East
1812.  Haddam, Connecticut.  On February 9, 1812, at 9h A.M., two slight runblings
were felt.  The weather was clear. July 5, at 8h A.M., another of the Haddam
shocks. Atmosphere filled with mist and rain.
lMemoirs American Academy, vol. III, p. 346.  2Janvier 18, 1811.




ON NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                                            17
December 28, 1813, at 4  P.M., during wet weather  another rumbling was 1813.
heard at East Haddam.'
September 9, 1816, a severe shock was felt at; Montreal, and on the sixteenth of  1
the same month a second shock of less violence than the former lasted thirty seconds.  These were hardly felt in central New England.2
October 5, an earthquake is reported.  Walls were thrown  down  at Woburn,
1817.
Massachusetts.'
October 11, 1818, strong shocks were felt along the base of the mountains to
the north of Quebec.  (Qu. Watckish Mts.)  The windows and furniture of the
houses were shaken.4
About the middle of November, 1819, a slight shock was felt at Montreal, which
was followed by a tempest in which rain fell of an inky blackness.5
At the end of February, 1821, a slight shock was felt at Quebec, but not noticed
in New England.6  In 1823, May 30, the water rose nine feet in Lake Erie; a
slight shock.7
July 9, 1824, a severe shock was felt at New Brunswick, accompanied by a noise   1824
like the discharge of cannon.8
October 15, 1826, a violent earthquake was felt at Savannah, in Georgia.
August 6,-1827, at 10h P.M., a slight shock was felt in  Indiana.  And on the
twenty-third of the same month a shock was felt at New London, Connecticut,
accompanied by a noise like the rolling of a heavy wagon, the noise increasing
for three or four seconds and then decreasing for an equal time.9
August 20, 1828, a light shock was felt in some parts of Canada.  February 24,  1828
1828, a violent shock is reported at Washington and Baltimore; and on March 9,
between 10h and 11h P.M., two severe shocks were felt, lasting in all 30".10
In January, 1829, at the beginning of the month  a slight shock is reported at  1829
Portsmouth, New Hampshire."
July  14, 1831, walls and chimneys were thrown  down at Murray Bay, Canada.12   The next year a slight shock was felt at Nova Scotia.                                    1831.
The shocks were repeated at Murray Bay in March and Apr"il.3                                  1833.
April 12, 1837, an earthquake  occurred at Hartford, Connecticut, slight, but
enough to jar all loose articles, and  swing  a pendant lamp.  In  one house a bell
rang, and some people ran out of their houses, thinking they were about to fall.l4
On Sunday, Atugust 9, 1840, an earthquake was distinctly felt in many parts of1840
Connecticut.  At Hartford  the people rushed from  the churches.   But in New
1 Silliman's Journal, vol. xxxix, p. 339.            9 Columbus, Dec. 1827, s. 197.
2 Journal des Debats, Janvier 1, 1817.              10 Monthly Magazine, August, 1828, p. 202. December
8Felt's Annals of Salem, vol. It, p. 143.          11, 1828, a shock was felt in Georgia.
4Annales de Chimie et de Physique, t. xii, p. 426. Quart-    "Preussische Staatszeitung 1829. nr. 62.  Von Hoff,
erly Journal of the Royal Institution, vol. vi, p. 370.  Chronik, t. ii, p. 315, adds that it occurred in the night.
6Ibid, t. xv, p. 422. Ibid, vol. ix, p. 205.         12 Transactions of the Society of Quebec, vol. ii, pp. 83,
TIbid, t. xviII, p. 415. Archives des Decouvertes 18-2, p.  89, 1831.
190, only repeats the same as preceding reference.    13 Transactions of the Geological Society (London), vol.
7 Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society,  v, p. 98, note. Murray Bay is the centre of frequent disNew York, vol. Ir, p. 1, ~ 25.                       turbances.
8 lbTid, 1824, p. 213. Annales de Chimie et de Physique, t.   14 Silliman's Journal, vol. xxxIi, p. 339.
XXVii, p. 378.
M.EMOI1s IBOST. 80C. NAT. HIST. VOL. II.  6




18                              WILLIAM  T. BRIGHAM
Haven it was not at all felt in the churches, and only slightly by a few people in the'r
own houses. " At North Milford, six miles west of New Haven, it was not perceived. At
Milford, still further west, and at Bridgeport, it was felt and heard distinctly. Hence we
hear of it to the north and northeast as very distinct, nine to twenty-five miles from New
Haven.  It was very perceptible in some parts of Massachusetts - not at all in Westfield.
In Worcester County it was severe.  In Boston there was nothing of it."  Some observers
thought the noise proceeded from  east to west, others from  northeast to southwest; and
one who was used to earthquakes, thought that at Chester, in Connecticut, near East Haddam, the rumbling continued half a minute, and its course was from northwest to southeast. At Chester, twenty-five miles east of New Haven, the shock was distinctly noticed.
The sound was compared to the roll of thunder, the rumbling of a carriage, and the roar
of a chimney on fire. The weather was clear, and the sun shining bright. There seems
to be no record of the time of day.1  September 10.  A violent shock at Hamilton, Canada, from west to east.
November 11, 1840, a severe shock was felt at Philadelphia, accompanied by a great
and unusually sudden swell in the Delaware.  On the fourteenth of the same month,
there was a noise and shock observed in Philadelphia (not New Haven, as Mallet has it),
but the members of the American Philosophical Society could not determine whether it
was caused by an earthquake or a meteor.2
84184L  January 25, 1841, several shocks were felt in New York in the morning, lasting
from fifteen to twenty seconds in all, with a direction from west to east.  During
this year a shock was reported in Canada, but it is very doubtful. A large mass of rock
fell from a cliff, and was probably the origin of the shocks, as in February, 1796, when a
fall of part of the ledge at Niagara Falls caused a tremor which was credited to an earthquake.
1842. November 9, 1842, an earthquake at Montreal, Three Rivers, and other parts
of Canada, when "the waters of the St. Lawrence were violently agitated."4
1845.    October 26, 1845, a slight shock was felt at New York, and in the western part
of New England.
1846     May 30, 1848, at 1 30' P.M.., a shock was distinctly felt at Newburyport, Salem,
and adjacent towns.  July 10, a series of shocks commenced at Deerfield, New
Hampshire, which continued on September 12, at sunset; October 29, at 9h P.M.; 31, at
night; December 2.  None of these were severe, and as Deerfield is on the line between Newbury and Montreal, it is remarkable that these tremors were not felt at a
greater distance. They were repeated the next year.
1847.    January 8, 1847, about 3h P.M., a shock at Grafton Harbor, and a remarkable
tide on Lake Ontario.  January 11, at 11h 30' P.M., a shock at Albany, N. Y.
The Journal of Commerce, of January 20, reports a slight shock at Lincolnville and Camden,
Maine. February 2, at Deerfield.  On the fourteenth at Meredith Village, New Hampshire,
on the nineteenth at Belfast, Maine, and on the twenty-first at Deerfield.  All these were
light, and very local.  April I, at 9h P.M., at Limington, Maine.  June 9, a tide was noticed
at Lake Winnepiseogee, New Hampshire. July 9, in the morning a shock was felt at Glens
Sillimnan's Journal, vol. XXXIX (2), p. 335. Hartford and   3 Comptes Rendus, t. xI, p. 449.
New Haven Congregational Observer, August 2, 1840.     British Association Report. Transactions of Sections,
2 Silliinan's Journal, vol. XL (2), p. 376.  1845, p. 20. Moniteur Dec. 5, 1842.




ON NEW  ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                              19
Falls.  August 8, about 10h A.M., an earthquake was reported at Boston, Dedham, Cape
Cod and Nantucket, but not to the north.
The beginning of this year, January 1 and February 1, shocks are reported in
Nova Scotia; the first broke the ice on ponds and opened doors, the second
occurred at Yarmouth and Sherburne. It is well known that intense cold, as well as intense heat, causes cracking and subterranean rumbling, and it is necessary to guard
against mistaking the origin of similar results. These shocks should probably be referred
to atmospheric agencies.
May 23, a shock was felt at Montreal, followed the next day by a torrent of rain.
September 9, about 10h P.M., a shock was reported in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  The Moniteur of September 29, states that a
slight shock had just been felt in the northern United States, and this is doubtless the one
intended.
November 6, at 5h 15' A.M., a light shock at Grand Island, in the St. Lawrence.
December 11, at 3h A.M., a tremor at Montreal.
February 4, 1849, at Newport, Rhode Island.                                  1849
February 15, at Springfield, Massachusetts, also in St. Lawrence Co., New York.
October 8, in the afternoon, through Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
July 20, 1850, at Portland, Maine, in the afternoon.                         1850.
January 3, 1851, at Waterville, Maine.                                        85
January 30, at 5h P.M., a light shock at St. Andrews, Canada.
January 10, 1852, a shock was noticed at Bedford, Massachusetts, which seems
to have extended westward to the Connecticut River. The time given in the
reports from New Bedford, Providence, Warwick, was 6h 40' A.M.
February 11, 5h 40' A.M., at St. Martins, Canada, a light shock from  the west-northwest.  The barometer stood at 29.067; the thermometer at 38.5 F.
April 30, in the afternoon, a shock was felt in the Eastern States, but principally at
Washington and Baltimore.
June 30, at Claremont, New Hampshire, and Windsor, Vermont, both on the Connecticut River.
August 1, at Groton, Connecticut.
August 2, about 11h P.M., at Bathurst, New Brunswick.
August 11, P.M., at Deerfield again.
November 27, 11h 45' P.M., an explosion and a dull noise or rumbling was heard at
Newburyport, and through the Valley of the Merrimack, at Beverly, Ipswich, Woburn,
Topsfield, Groton, Salem, Danvers and Wareham, Massachusetts, and Portsmouth and
Exeter, New Iampshire. At the latter place, the shock lasted half a minute, and shook
the houses so as to wake people.'
March 12, 1853, between two and three o'clock in the morning, a shock was  1853.
noticed at Lowville, New York, which threw down machinery. Its direction was
east to west, or the reverse, as observers did not agree.  Felt also in Canada.
May 24, at Bytown, Canada.
June 3, two or three shocks at Bridgetown, Nova Scotia.
1Silliman's Journal (2), vol. xv, p. 140.  2 Silliman's Journal (2), vol. xvI, p. 294.




20                                WILLIAM  T. BRIGHAM
July 17, between 5h and 6h A.M., two shocks at Portland, Saco, and other places in
Maine.
September 7, 11h 10' P.M., at New Bedford and Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
1854.    February 22-23, 1854, midnight a shock and rumbling, from west to east, was
felt and heard at Reading, Massachusetts.
October, a shock at Keene, New Hampshire.
December 4, at 10h P.M., a shock at Huntington, Canada.
December 10, 12h 30' P.M., at Newburyport, Massachusetts, and Exeter and Portsmouth,
New Hampshire.
1855.    February 8, 1855, in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and New England, a slight
shock.  On the nineteenth of the same month a shock in Maine.
85.    May 1, 1856, a slight shock at Ottawa, Canada.
December 28, a slight shock at Ottawa, reported by Dawson.'
1857.    In the Upper Province, Canada, in October, slight.
218ay 10, 1858, at Richmond, Canada.
May 17, P.M., light shock at Richmond.  At Sherbrook, about 3h P.M., the
ground moved feebly, with a sound like distant thunder, apparently from the northwest.
At Melbourne and Compton the animals seemed much alarmed.
June 30, 10" 45' P.M., at New Haven, the tremor lasted more than a minute, accompmnied by a sound like a carriage on a bridge, but more sonorous and prolonged; from
southwest to northeast.  The sky was clear and the air perfectly calm.  At Derby the
shock was severer than at New Haven; the houses were strongly shaken.2
October 8, at 3h 15' P.M., a shock was felt in western New York, principally at Buffalo,
but also in Canada.  The northern end of the line of disturbance seems to have been Port
Hope, on Lake Ontario, and the southern, near Warren, Pennsylvania.3  Eastward it did
not pass the Adirondacs, but from ilts extent into the Montreal region is mentioned in this
list.  On the eighth of this month a marked shock was felt at St. Louis, and also in
Illinois.4
1859.    A slight shock at Metis, in Canada.5
1March 16, 1860, at 9h 30' and at 1Oh 15' P.M., Provincetown, Massachusetts,
was visited by two shocks.  At Dedham the second shock was felt, attended by a
noise like a heavy body falling from the top of a house.  It was perceived at Holliston.
October 17, 6h A.M., an earthquake was felt in Canada, and the northern United States.
A number of observations were made, and the following list, prepared by Professor J. W.
Dawson, of Montreal, gives a tolerably satisfactory view  of the region shaken.  The
places are arranged in longitudinal order from east to west.6
Bic, 6h A.M. Three shocks at intervals of some seconds, noise continued ten minutes.
Green Island, 6h A.M.
Rivilre du Loup, 6h A.M. A series of shocks lasting nearly five minutes. A schooner off this place experienced a shock resembling that of striking on a sandbank, and the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence were
unusually agitated.
1 Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, vol. I.    4 Ibid, vol. xxv, p. 136.
2 Sillimnan's Journal (2), vol. xxvI, p. 298.   6 Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, vol. v, p. 372.
3 Ibid, vol. xxvi, p. 177.                       Ibid, vol. V, p. 364.




ON NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                                               21
Riviere Oaelle, 6h 15' A.M. Very violent, damaging walls and throwing down chimneys, especially in low
grounds. An account appeared anonymously in a Quebec paper, as follows:Rivi're Ouelle, 17 Octobre, 1860.
" Ce matin trois fortes secousses de tremblement de terre sont venues jeter la frayeur au milieu de nos populations.
"Les batisses situees de chaque cote de notre riviere ont souffert generalement.  [Dix-huit chemin6es ont
6te renversees.]  La croix de notre eglise et le coq sur qui la montait sont a terre; les murs de notre belle
6glise sont lezardes.  Les secousses etaient effrayantes; la premiere, la plus violente, a commence a six
heures et quart, et a dur6 quatre minutes et quarante secondes, tres violentes durant dix secondes et s'affaiblissant graduellement; la secousse la: plus faible a-six heures et vingt minutes, a dure trois a quatre secondes,
et la troisieme a commence a six henres et dcemie, et n'a dure que deux a trois secondes; mais, comme la premiere, c'etait un choc saccade faisant danser les meubles, declochant les cadres, les horloges, etc.
"Les secousses ont 6t6 plus faibles sur les hauteurs, que dans les plaines, de sorte que mes batisses se sont
trouvees a l'abri des accidents.
"Jamais de  emnoire de nos habitants, nous n'avons eu des coups aussi forts. Je suis demeure devant mon
horloge tout ie temps polr In'assurer de sa duree. * * * Un bruit sourd et fort nous a d'abord averti et ensuite
sont venus les secousses et les craquements."
Eboulements, near Murray Bay, 5h 36' A.MA.  Violent.  Five other feeble shocks in rapid succession,
another at noon, and another at 5h P.M. This is the only place where these latter shocks are mentioned,
but the hour of the first is probably an error.
Bay St. Paul, 5h 50' A.M. Violent shock; chimneys fell.
St. Thomas (Montmagny), 6h A.M. Two shocks.
St. Joseph de la Beauce; 6h 10' A.M.
Quebec, 5h 50' A.M. Several shocks, not so severe as at Riviere Ouelle, but especially marked in the low
grounds.
Leeds, Megantic, 6h 10' to 6h 15' A.M.
Richmond, 5h 45' A.M.
Three Rivers, about 6h A.M. Shocks felt for two minutes.
Granby, about 6h A.M.
St. Hyacinthe, 5h 45' A.M. Three shocks continuing more than a minute; buildings reported damaged.
Maskinonge, 6h A.M.  Shocks felt for more than a minute.  Supposed to be from north to south.
Montreal, 5" 50' A.M. Two or three perceptible shocks, felt less on the mountain than on lower ground.
St. Martin, Isle Jesus, 5h 55'. At Dr. Smallwood's observatory, two distinct and smart shocks. The wave
passed from east to west. Barometer 29.964 inches, temperature 40.3, wind N. E., cloudy.
Cornwall, 6h A.M.
Prescott, 5h 30'.
Belleville, 5h 30'. One shock. This place is about 90 of longitude west of Bic.
Hamilton, 4h 45' A.M.
In all, or nearly all, of these places the usual rumbling noise preceded the shock, and
gradually  decreased  as it passed.  The shock was felt on the Atlantic coast.  At Saco,
Maine, there was a strong shock.  This earthquake was felt as far west as Auburn, in New
York, and south to  Newark, New Jersey.'  In  Maine, New  Hampshire, Vermont and
Massachusetts, four light shocks were felt from east to west, with a feeble, subterranean
noise.
In March, there were two shocks in  Massachusetts, according  to some reports.2
1861.
July 12, about 9 P.M., a shock was felt at Montreal, Ottawa, Prescott, Ogdensburg,
Brockville, Saint Andrews and St. Johns, but it was most violent at Ottawa, where it overJ Silliman's Journal (2), vol. xxx, p. i50.            2 New York Weekly Herald, March 9.  Bunker Hill Aurora.
MEMOillS BlOST. S0C. NAT. HIST. VOL. II.  6




22                                WILLIAM  T. BRIGHAM
turned chimneys. According to Professor Dawson, it was, in several places, preceded by
a dull noise, then a series of light vibrations, which were terminated by a sudden shock.
At Prescott, three shocks were reported.' At 9h 3' a strong shock was felt at Isle Jesus,
lasting twenty seconds, and apparently coming from  the north-north-west.2  This earthquake was also felt at Syracuse, New York, where it lasted four seconds, shaking furniture.
The date of this shock has been much confused; Perrey places the New York shock on the
tenth, and another report gives the eleventh for the disturbance at Isle Jesus. They were
all doubtless to be referred to one.
August 31, at 5h 22' A.M., two shocks were felt at Washington, at an interval of about
five seconds, and each lasted six or seven seconds. The direction seemed to be south to
north, and they were felt at Cincinnati, Ohio.
1862.    February 2, 1862, about 8h P.M., a strong shock at Colchester, Connecticut;
service in the churches was interrupted; at Lyme it lasted three or four seconds.
This is in the region of which East Haddam is the centre.
February 4, about 7h 30' A.M., at Saybrook, and other towns in Middlesex County,
Massachusetts, a shock less than that two days before lasted some seconds.
864 April 20, 1864, between Ih and 2h P.M, a shock more violent than that of 1860
was felt at Quebec but not noticed at Montreal.  Two shocks were felt at Danville
and Father Point.  The time at Quebec was probably 1h 10'- Ih 15' P.M., and two distinct shocks of five or six seconds duration, were noticed.  In the Harvey Hill Mines, at a
depth of 180 feet, it was perceptible.  At Father Point, another shock at llh P.M. is reported.3
October 21, 4h 10' A.M., four distinct shocks were felt at Montreal.  They seemed to
come from the east, and each lasted about ten seconds.
December 18, 1867, 3h A.M., a shock is reported in New York and Vermont, as
far south as Whitehall, on the boundary of these States; and in British America,
from  Belleville, Canada, to Sackville, New Brunswick.  It lasted about twenty-five seconds. At Burlington, Vermont, most of the inhabitants were waked up. At Syracuse, at
3h 10', and the duration estimated at 1' 30"; direction from south to north, stronger at the
commencement than the end.  At Ogdensburg, the noise seemed to last two minutes and
the vibrations one minute; direction west to east; intensity varying gradually, highest
at either extreme.  At Hammond, the first shock is said to have occurred at 2h 50' A.M.,
and was followed by others lighter.  At 4h 27' a final shock.  At Montreal, at 3h A.M.
The shock extended from Port Hope on the west, to Trois Rivieres on the east.4
[As nearly two years have elapsed since this paper was prepared, it has been thought best to continue the
enumeration of earthquakes in New England up to the time of publication.]
18.    October 22, about 6h A.M., an earthquake was felt over New England, and the
eastern Province. In Nova Scotia it was noticed at Halifax, Kentville and Annapolis. At St. John, New Brunswick, the shock was severe, lasting about 20", and preceded
by a rumbling noise. People were frightened from their houses. At Frederickton, chimneys were thrown down and walls cracked.  At New Haven, very few noticed it, and it
was even less at Boston.5
1 Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, vol. VI, p. 329.  4 Silliman's Journal (2), vol. XLV, p. 135.
2lbid, vol. vii, p. 43.                        6 Silliman's Journal (2), vol. XLVIII, p. 418.
* Ibid, New Series, vol. I, p. 156.




ON NEW  ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                               23
October 20, 1870, at 11h 25' a distinct vibration was felt from New Brunswick to
Iowa.  The duration and direction of the shock have been variously stated, and
illustrate the difficulty of seismic observations, without instruments. By my own observations, the duration was more than a minute.  I was seated at a very solid desk, and
when the shock commenced was writing, which became impossible, and on looking at my
watch, I found that the vibration continued sensibly 43", but died away so gradually that
I could not distinguish it from possible jar from passing teams. No noise could be observed. All persons familiar with earthquakes, know the peculiar feeling of direction,
almost indescribable, and very various; sometimes like a train of cars passing under a
bridge, but so distinct that the noise or vibration comes from a certain direction. In the
present case, the shock, although slight, was sufficient to move a door of my desk that
happened to be open, its plane in a south-south-east direction, through an arc of 40-6"
repeatedly and rapidly, indicating a course of, approximately, north-north-east to southsouth-west. An observer in the same neighborhood thought the oscillation was from
south-south-west to north-north-east, and the duration about 28".
Many persons in Boston felt a slight nausea, while others did not feel the shock at all.
It was felt less on the new-made lands than in the ancient part of the city. In Canada
the effects were more severe and walls are reported cracked, and chimneys overthrown.
A telegraph operator in Quebec was in the act of enquiring about the earthquake at
Montreal, when it was felt at the latter place.
At Portland, Maine, glass was broken; the shock was felt more perceptibly on the
wharves.  The telegraph operator at Bangor reported the shock about 2" before it was
felt at Portland.  About three hundred feet of the Ogdensburg Railroad, sixteen miles
from the city, settled ten feet at the time of the earthquake.
At Bath the vibrations seemed east and west, and their duration 15".
At Bowdoin College, Brunswick, a chimney was broken; the direction seemed northeast and south-west, and the duration 30"- 40".
Augusta, two shocks were noticed; the duration was 25".
Lewiston, bricks were thrown from several chimneys, and the shock lasted about 30".
Burlington, Vermont, a distinct shock at 11h 26' A.M. There were regular vibrations
from south to north, lasting in all about 15".
Newburyport, Massachusetts, a slight jar was felt, which was immediately followed by
a heavy rumbling lasting 30", jarring buildings and ringing doorbells. It seemed to pass
off in a south-westerly direction.
At Cambridge, Massachusetts, Professor Winlock, of the Observatory, considered the
direction of the vibrations about 10~ north of east, but he judged only from the appearance of the sides of a vessel containing milk.
At Boston, an observer gives the time of the cessation of the shock at 11h 25' 37" Cambridge mean time.
At Springfield, three distinct shocks were noticed, of which the last was the severest,
lasting 7"- 8".
At New Haven, Connecticut, and other places, there were two distinct series of vibrations.  The shock commenced at 1lh 19' 45" New Haven mean time, or 1' 45" after it
reached Boston, apparently. It lasted ten seconds, and the individual half vibration,
lasted about two-thirds of a second; after an interval of five seconds there was anothei




24                                WILLIAM  T. BRIGHAM
shock, like the first, of eleven seconds duration. It was thought that the direction was
north-north-east to south-south-west. Another report gives the direction as from northeast to south-west, and the duration 20".  Hartford, the shock lasted from  20"-60", and
the wave apparently moved from north-west to south-east.
At Albany, New York, Professor Hough, of the Dudley Observatory, gives tlhe time at
11h 15', and the duration 1'.  A  rumbling noise was heard, and a clock pendulum swinging north and south was made to vibrate east and west.  Since 9h A.M. of the previous
day, the barometer had fallen rapidly.7 of an inch.  During the shock the mercury in
the registering barometer was violently agitated.
At Cleveland, Ohio, several clocks were stopped, each indicating nearly 1lh 45' A.M.
Slight shocks were felt at Richmond, Virginia, and at Dubuque, Iowa.'
There were no seismometers in any observatory in New  England, and we are again
compelled to infer roughly the direction and force.
It was intended when this enumeration of the New England earthquakes was prepared,
to supplement it by a full discussion of the geological features of the regions where these
have been most frequent and severe, and also by a map of such of the so-called trap regions of New England and the adjacent parts of Canada, as present distinct indications of
volcanic origin.  Our State Reports have very frequently been prepared by those who,
with an admirable knowledge of general geology, have been deficient in the familiarity
with volcanic remains, which only a careful study of both the active and extinct systems
of volcanoes can furnish.  It is probable that the very general, and much abused term
"trap " has been given to indurated and obscure aqueous deposits; certainly, not enough
care has been exercised in distinguishing the various kinds which occur in our wTell-known
dikes and veins.
Although nearly a century ago attention was called to the phenomena observed at West
River Mountain, on the Connecticut River, in New Hampshire,2 yet no vulcanologist (if
this term  may be used), has ever examined the mountain, although, if the reports then
published were correct, masses of slag, rapilli and scoria were abundant, at or near the
crater-like summit.  Montreal has been called an ancient trachytic cone.  Gay Head, on
Martha's Vineyard, and the Moodus Hill, in Connecticut, have had their volcanic nature
affirmed, and denied.  And the whole valley of the Connecticut River, seamed with dikes
and dotted with eruptive cones, is unstudied as yet. No doubt exists that volcanic agencies
have been at work here, in comparatively recent times, for the hardened marble of the Vermont beds on either side of dikes, show the hot rock was an intruder on the limestone
deposits.  The dikes in the conglomerate, near Boston, show the same subsequent date for
some of these formations.
When Mr. Percival attempted to report on the geology of Connecticut, he was much
impressed with the remarkable and frequent trap ridges and dikes in the centre of the
1 Sillinan's Journal (2), vol. L, p. 434.     tion was accompanied by a loud noise, resembling the
2Memnoirs American Acadely, vol. I (1), p. 312. In Dr.  sound of a cannon. A hole was found about six inches in
Dwight's Travels, is the following: —" At Hinsdale, on  diameter; a pine tree which stood near it, was partially covthe Connecticut River, in the State of New Hampshire,  ered by a black mineral substance, forced out of the passage,
was an eruption of fire in 1752, from a volcanic moun-  consisting chiefly of melted and calcined iron ore, and
tain, called West River Mountain. This miniature erup-  strongly resembling the scoria of a blacksmith forge."




ON NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                                        25
State.  He had never seen a volcano, but the curiously radiating ridges, and semi-circular
mounds and depressions, suggested a common origin, and that volcanic.
Our geologists are now prosecuting their examinations into the physical geology of New
England, in a way unknown when most of the State reports were published; and, although
the purpose with which this paper was commenced has been necessarily abandoned for the
present, yet these most interesting localities may be examined by those now in the field,
and useful results expected.
The regions indicated by the earthquakes catalogued, are as follows: —
1.  A  region in Canada, somewhat elliptical in form, with the city of Montreal at its
western focus.
2.  A region around the mouth of the Merrimack River, in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and extending to Boston.
3.  A  region smaller than either of the others around New Haven, Lyme and East
Haddam.
These are, as will be seen, comparatively independent,- although a severe shock may be
simultaneous in all. The trap indications (and the word trap is here used in its popular
signification, to mean any felspathic, igneous rocks, containing much augite and hornblende,) are more continuous, and are also widely diffused.  Northern Vermont, the Connecticut valley, central Connecticut, and eastern Massachusetts, are in some sort distinct,
although not differing so much as to be referred to different ages; for it seems probable
that the dikes have been formed at intervals in the same locality, and their formation may
be, and doubtless is, now going on from time to time, at various depths below the surface,
and by the high temperature they bring in contact with the cold rock, through which
they break, or into whose cavities they run, produce the tremors and disturbances we call
earthquakes.
TABULAR VIEW  OF NEW  ENGLAND  EARTHQUAKES.
DATE.                                  EXTENT.                                COURSE.
1568
1574                        Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island.  These four are
1584                          Indian traditions, reported by Roer Williams. See p. 14.
1592                       J
1638  June 1    2h-4b P.M.  All New England: quite severe.                              NW-SE
1642 March 5    7h A.M.
June 1    1h P.M.    Massachusetts.                                               E-W
1653  Oct. 29
1658  April (4?)           New England; violent.
1660  Jan. 31
1662  Jan. 26    6h P.M.    New England.                                           * 
Nov. 6
1663 Jan. 26    5h 30' P.M. Canada and New England.
Jan. 28    9h A.M.
1665  Feb. 24              Canada; slight in New England.
Oct. 15    9h 30'
1668
1669
1670
1706
1720  Jan. 8
1727  Feb. 29   10h 40' P.M. Centring near the mouth of the Merrimack.           x * * * NW-SE
Nov. 7    11h P.M.    Newblry; all slight and attended with noise.
MEM.OIRS BOST. SOC. NAT. HIST. VOL. II.  7




26                                             WILLIAM T. BRIGHAM
1727   Nov. 12        3h 30' P.M.   Newbury; all slight and attended with noise.
Nov. 12       4h 30' P.M.        "
Nov. 13                          "
Jan. 3        9h P.M.            4
Jan. 6        9h P.M.            c.
Jan. 24       9h 30' P.M.        "
Jan. 28       6h 30' A.M.'
Jan. 28      10h A.M.            "
Jan. 29       Ih A.M. 
Jan. 30       2h P.M.            "
Feb. 21      12h 30' A.M.        "
Feb. 29 
March 17    3h A.M. 
March 19    Ih 40' P.M.          "
March 19    9h P.M. 
1728   April 28      5h P.M. V
May 12        9h 40' P.M.        "
May 17        8h P.M.,        ~
May 22       10h A.M.            "
June 6        3h A.M.            "
June 8        3" A.M.            "
June 11       9h A.M.            "
July 3        2h A.M,            "
I July 23 
Jan. 30       2h P.M.        A distinct shock at Boston.                                                 *
March 19    2' 30' P.M1.   Newbury.
1729   Sept. 8       3" 30' (?) 
Sept. 29      4h 30' P.M.       "
Oct. 29      10h 40' P.M,       "
Nov. 14       8h A.M.                                                                                * 
Nov. 27       8" P.M. 
Feb. 8        8h P.M. 
Feb. 8       12h M. 
Feb. 26       1h 45 A.M.        "                                                                    *
1730   April 12      8h P.M.            "
July 28       9h A.M,            "
Aug. 15       8h A.M.                                                                                *  *
Nov. 6                           "
Nov. 14       9h A.M.            "
Nov. 25       8h 20: P.M.        "
Dec. 6       10h 45' P.M.        "
Dec. 11       6h 45' P.M.        c
Dec. 12      10 30Q P.M.        "  No noise, but felt at Boston.
Jan. 7        7h P.M.            c
Jan. 7        M. 
March 7       5h P.M.           "
1731   May 28        9h A.3.   "
July 5        - A..  "
Aug. 21       9h P.M.            ~;
Oct. 1       11 P.M. 
Feb. 7        7h P.A. 
1732   Sept. 5      11h A.M.            "  No noise, but felt at Boston and Montreal.
Dec. 30      -  A.M. 
March 1 1
1733   Oct. 19       M.
Jan. 16      10h 20' P.M. 
1734   June 29        3h 15' P.MA.      "
Oct. 9       10" 20' A.M.        "
Nov. 11-12   M. 
Nov. 16       6h A.M. 
Feb. 2        5h 45' P.M.        ".
March 21   10h 30' A.M.          c
1736  July 13         9h 45' A.M.       "
Oct. 1        1h 30' A.M                                                                             *  *
Nov. 12       2h A.M.    "
Nov. 12       6h A.M.            "
Feb. 6        4h 15' P.M.        "  Shocks felt at Boston at 4h 30' P.M.
1737  Sept. 9       10" 20'       
I)ec. 7      1 1 P.M.            "  Felt at New York and Boston.
1739   Aug. 2         2h 30' A.M.       "
1740   Dec. 14        Gh 35' A.M.       "
Jan. 18       4h A.M.            "
Jan. 25       3h 50' P.M.;"
N. S.
1741  Dec. 6          8h A.M.        Boston and vicinity.




ON NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.                                                         27
1741  June 13    10h 35'A.M.
1744  May 16                      Quebec.
June 3                     Cambridge.
Dec. 23      M.            Newbury.
1746  Feb. 2        9h_-10h P.M.  Boston.
1755  Nov. 18       4 11'35"A.M. All New England.                                                   * *     NW-SE
Nov. 18      5h 29'
Nov. 22      8h 27' P.M.   Boston.
Dec. 19     10h P.M.          "
1756  Jan. 2 
Nov. 16      4h A.M.          "
Dec. 4      10o P.M.          "
1757  July 8        2h 15' P.M.       "
1758  April 24      9" 30' P.M.   Pennsylvania and Maryland; slight in New England.
1759  Feb. 2                      Boston.
1760  Feb. 3                      New England.
Nov. 9                     Boston; more severe in the neighborhood.
1761   Feb. - 
March 12    2b 15' A.M.  New England.
March 16
Nov. 1       8h P.M.       Massachusetts and New Hampshire.                                   -       NW-SE
1766  Feb. 2                      Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
June 14                    Essex County, Mass.
Aug. 25                    Newport, R. I.
Dec. 17    6h 48'          Portsmouth, N. H.
1783  Nov. 29    10" 50' P.M.   New England and as far as Pennsylvania.                                         N-S
1785  Jan. 2        7h 15' A.M.  Cambridge; and about the same time at Baltimore.
1786  Nov. 29       4h P.M.           "
1787  Feb. 25 1h A.M.   i
1791   May 16       8h A.M.       East Haddam, Conn.                                                 *   *
May 17       - P.M.
May 18      10h P.M.          "  Also from Boston to Philadelphia.                                      W-E
December                   Canada.
1792  Aug. 28    10h P.M.         East Haddam.
Oct. 24      lh A.M.                                                                          * * *
1793  Jan. 11       8" A.M. 
July 6       6h A.M. 
1794  March 6       2h P.M.           "                                                                  *
March 6    llh P.M. 
1800  Iec. 25                     Newport, Boston, Concord and elsewhere.
Nov. 11-12                 Boston.
1801  March 1                     Salem.
1805  Aur. 11       7h P.M.       East Haddam.                                                        *  *
Dec. 30      6h A.M.          "
1810  Nov.    9    h 15' P.M.   Exeter, N. H., and northward.                                                 NW-SE
1812   Feb. 9       9" A.M.       East Haddam.                                                           *
July 5       8h A.M.          "
1813  Dec. 28       4h P.M.           "
1816  Sept. 9                     Montreal; hardly noticed in central New England.
Sept. 16
1817   Oct. 5                     Woburn, Mass.
1818  Oct. 11                     Quebec.
1819  November                    Montreal.
1821  February                    Quebec.
1824  Jiuly 9                     New Brunswick.
1827   Aug. 23                    New London, Conn.
1828  Aug. 20                     Canada.
1829  January                     Portsmouth, N. H.
1831  July 14                     Murray Bay, Canada.
1833  March
April
1837   April 12                   Hartford, Conn.
1840  Aug. 9                      New Haven and northward.                                                    NW-SE
Sept. 10                   Hamilton, Canada.                                                            W-E
1841   Jan. 25      - A.M.        New York State.                                                              W-E
1842  Nov. 9                      Montreal.
1845  Oct. 26                     New York and western New England
1846  May 30        1h 30' P.M.   Newburyport and Salem.
July 10                    I)eerfield, N. H.
Sept. 12     Sunset.
Oct. 29      9" P.M.          "
Oct. 31      - P.M.           "
Dec. 2
1847  Jan. 8        3h P.M.
Jan. 11     1 h 30' P.M.   Albany, N. Y.




28.WILLIAM T. BRIGHAM ON NEW ENGLAND EARTHQUAKES.
1847  Feb. 2                      Deerfield, N. H.
Feb. 14                    Meredith Village, N. H.
Feb. 19                    Belfast, Me.
Feb. 21                    Deerfield, N. H.
April 1      9h P.M.       Lirnington, Me.
June 9                     Lake Winnepiseogee, N. H.
July 9                     Glens Falls.
Aug. 8      10h A.M.       Boston and towards Cape Cod.
1848  Jan. 1                      Nova Scotia.
Feb. I                        "
May 23                     Montreal.
Sept. 9     10h P.M.       Southern New England, to Pennsylvania.
Nov. 6       6h 15' A.M.   Grand Island, Canada.
Dec. 11      3h A.M.       Montreal.
1849  Feb. 4                      Newport, R. I.
Feb. 15                    Springfield, Mass., and eastern New York.
Oct. 8      - P.M.         Middlesex County, Mass.
1850  July 20       - P.M.        Portland, Me.
1851  Jan. 3                      Waterville, Me.
Jan. 30      5h P.M.       Canada.
1852  Jan. 10       6h 40' A.M.   Massachusetts. 
Feb. 11      5h 40' A.M.  Canada.                                                                       ESV
April 30     - P.M.        New England; more at Washington, D.C.  (   E
June 30                    Claremont, N. H.
Aug. 1                     Groton, Conn.
Aug. 2      11h P.M.       New Brunswick.
Aug. 11      - P.M.        Deerfield, Mass.
Nov. 27    11 45' P.M      Newburyport, Mass.
1853  March 12    2h-3h A.M.   New York and Canada.                                                           W-E
May 24                     Canada.
June 3                     Nova Scotia.   
July 17      5h-6h A.M.   Portland, Me.                                                       * 
Sept. 7     11h 10' P.M.   New Bedford, Mass.
1854  Feb. 22-23   M.             Reading, Mass.                                                              W-E
October                    Keene, N.H.
Dec. 4      10h P.M.       Canada.
Dec. 10    12h 30' P.M.   Newburyport, Mass.
1855  Feb. 8                      New England.
Feb. 19                    Maine.
1856  May 1                       Canada.
Dec. 28 
1857  October
1858  May 10 
May 17       3h P.M.          "                                                                      NW-SE
June 30    10h 45' P.M.   New Haven, Conn.
Oct. 8       3h 15' P.M.   New York and Canada.
1859                              Canada.
1860  March 16    9h 30' P.M.   Provincetown, Mass.
March 16   10h 15' P.M.       "
Oct. 17      6h A.M.       Canada and Northern States.                                                 E-W
1861  March                       Massachusetts.                                                             WNWJuly 12      9h P.M..    Canada.                                                                        SSE
1862  Feb. 2        8h P.M.       Connecticut. 
Feb. 4       7h 30' AM.  Middlesex Co., Mass.
1864  April 20      lh-2h P.M.   Quebec and Montreal.
April 20    11I P.M.       Father Point.' *
Oct. 21      4h 10' A.M.  Montreal.                                                                   E-W
1867  Dec. 18       3h A.M.  Vermont and Canada.                                                              S-N
1869  Oct. 22       6h A.M.       New England and Canada.
NNE1.870  Oct. 20     1 1h 25' A.M.   New England and westward.                                                  SSW
Distributed by months the earthquakes occurred as follows:
In October, 19; November, 29; December, 22; January, 20; February, 36; March, 22. Winter months.  148
April, 9; May, 13; June, 14; July, 13; August, 15; September, 10. Summer months.......                     74
No month given................................              9
Total, 231
Published January, 1871.