AN EARTHQUAKE IN ENGLAND.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1016, 23 January 1869, Page 3

AN EARTHQUAKE IN ENGLAND.

An earthquake shock was felt over a considerable extent of country on Friday, October 30, about 25 minutes to 11 p.m. Its greatest force appears to have occurred in Wales and the western counties. A letter from Hereford says : — " My chair for an instant shook violently and I perceived what I might have taken for a furious blast of wind, but it was too instantaneous, and it seemed to come from the earth rather than from the air. The wind was somewhat gusty. The sky was nearly clear, except that there was a dark bank of clouds in the south-west." At Worcester there was a gentle up and down motion, without sound, while at Cardiff the shock was accompanied hy a low rumbling sound which cansed an apprehension that a colliery explosion had occurred. At Broseley, in Shropshire, two distinct shocks were noted, each lasting about six or seven seconds. A correspondent writing from Sherborne, Dorsetshire, describes the event there thus: — "It appeared as if the building had been suddenly upheaved hy something rolling underneath from north to south, and that it gave a little shake on settling down again." From Somersetshire we learn that the vibration was so great as to cause bedsteads to rOck. The shock also extended to the midland districts. Reports from various parts of Leicestershire speak of many persons having experienced a slight undulatory movement. Several persons in Leicester, who at first attributed the shock to explosion, speak of the window-frames and various things in their houses rattling so violently as to disturb them from slumbers, while the china and glass jingled on the shelves. The shock was distinctly felt in and around Nottingham. A- resident in an elevated position on "the Forest," once part of Sherwood, states that about half-past 10 o'clock he felt the bed move under him, and in consequence jumped up instantly, when he found that his brother had been aroused hy the same shock. Other persons living in the same locality distinctly felt the vibration. Several houses were shaken and numbers of people were awakened out of their sleep. At Marborough the shock was so severe as to give a sensible, and, in some cases, a violent concussion to chairs and tables, and to awake persons who were sleeping. At Rugby and Farringdon the vibration was perceived, and approaching the metropolis, we are informed by a gentleman residing at Weybridge-common, that the earthquake wave caused some furniture in his bedroom to vibrate, and coming still nearer to London, a correspondent at Blackheath writes : — " My daughters came down from their beds in tho greatest alarm, and said they had had their beds shaken under them, and that they were convinced it was an earthquake. A servant in the house, who was also in bed, stated that she felt the same shaking, and each of them from the sensations experienced a feeling of sickness." The general conclusion is that the shock or shocks (for some speak of one and others of two shocks) were felt in all the counties in Wales, in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, the western and several of the midland counties — one gentleman noticed them in the Isle of Wight. There is no information of the event being noticed to the eastward of the metropolis. There is a general agreement that the time was between half-past 10 and a quarter to 11, and the majority of observers state that the motion was from north to south ; but a few describe it as having been from east to west. All who refer to the previous earthquake shock of October, 1863, agree that that of Friday was less severe and not so lasting as the previous visitation.

In connection with this subject the Times of Nov. 3, has the following : — " There are earthquakes in " divers places." On the 15th August the most terrible ever known wrecked, and then drowned, many hundreds of miles ofthe South American coast, sending a wave as far north as California, and right across the Pacific, 8000 miles, to our own countrymen in New Zealand. On the 21st October — that is, on the Wednesday week — San Francisco, the capital ofthe Pacific, as it is called by anticipation, had several successive shocks, violent enough to ruin many great buildings, and drive all the inhabitants into the streets. And now — on Friday, Oct. 30— a smart shock has been felt on this island, over an area of about 150 miles long and half that wide, perhaps we shall shortly find over a much larger area. England is apt to flatter herself that she is not as other countries in respect to earthquakes — not as those hot, wicked countries in the South of Europe, for example* * * t * * * We are not aware that science has made the least approach to even a probable account of these phenomena. All we know for certain is that there exist the materials for almost any conceivable disturbance below our feet. There is the fire below, the water above, and the combustible matter and imprisoned gases between. Magnotism also reveals other forces and other currents pervading the solid globe. Can man claim the honor of contributing to shape its surface ? That is just possible. It is known what effect the abstraction of water by an artesian well has on the whole stratum from which the supply is drawn, and here are we digging out of the earth millions of tons of coal, carrying it off, and dissipating it in the atmosphere. That must here and there affect the natural balance of material, diminishing the pressure here, increasing it there, and making new settlements, or faults, in the rock we stand upon. That may seem hut a trifling matter, hut we may one day find the dreaded exhaustion of our coalfields anticipated .by catastrophes of a more sudden and violent nature. Man is now claiming to be master of the climate. He can open or close the windows of heaven as he lists, by making the surface a forest or desert. Perhaps he may find that he has shaken the earth, whether he willed it or not, whether harmlessly or not ; — it will take ages to show."