Lasted for about twenty seconds, or in the
opinion of some, nearly a minute.

The force was sufficient to throw some
persons out of bed. All others who had
gone to rest instantly sprang from their
places of repose, and with little ceremony
as to clothing, joined the crowds, who
had rushed into the streets, which immediately became a scene of wild and unusual
terror, no one knowing but that a second
shock was instantly to bury them under
the ruins of their houses. Under this
apprehension, many hurried, ill prepared
as they were, out of town, and spent the
greater part of the night in the fields.

It was found that already great damage
had been done to the buildings. Many
were rent from top to bottom; great numbers of chimney tops had been shaken
down. From a stack of chimneys on the
Mason Lodge, a coping stone weighing
fifty or sixty pounds was thrown to the
other side of the street, a distance of not
less than twenty yards—a fact strikingly
showing the extent of the vibration. It
was remarkable that the newer houses
suffered more dilapidation than the older.
Amidst the crashing of falling stones and
tiles, and the shrieks and lamentations of
alarmed women, one curious circumstance
was not observed in the town, but was noticed by three gentlemen who were approaching it from the Westward: the great
bell tolled twice. In the morning another
important fact became known, namely,
that the beautiful steeple which had recently been attached to the County jail
had suffered a twist at the distance of a
few feet from the top.

The spire was there of an octagonal shape,
and the twist which was from the East
towards the North, was to the extent of
about a sixteenth of the whole circumference, the angle of the removed part being
turned to the centre of the adjacent face
in that direction. The present writer
speaks of this result from personal observation, for in 1826 he saw the steeple
in the condition described; it has since
been repaired. Most of the stones detached from the chimney tops were thrown
in the same direction, and it was from
this fact that the inference was drawn
that the direction of the motion in the
first instance was from North-west to
South-east, for such being the case, loose
parts at the top of a tall building would
naturally be left behind, or thrown in the
contrary direction.

Some gentlemen who had been in the
West Indies, where earthquakes are frequent, remarked of this shock, that it
was smarter than any they had ever
known in that part of the world.

At Cromarty a huge fragment of rock
was disengaged from a precipice, and the
gable wall of a newly built house was
rent diagonally from top to bottom.
Further to the North, three arches, which
had recently been built as part of
a roadway across a small arm of the sea
in the County of Sutherland, were thrown
down.

P.S.—During the progress of these sheets through the press, we observed the
following paragraph in the Sydney Empire of September 21st, 1855:—

EARTHQUAKE AT MELBOURNE.

The shock of an earthquake was experienced in Melbourne and its vicinity
shortly before three o’clock on Monday
morning last. The Argus says:—“The
shock appears to have been of so violent
a character as to have attracted general
notice, notwithstanding its occurrence at
an hour when but a very small fraction
of the population can be supposed to
have been sensible of any ordinary noise
or motion. Of course, accounts as to
the peculiar nature of the shock differ
considerably; some describing it as
being a rolling motion, while others say
that they were sensible of a heaving vibration. We have received information
from numbers of persons, describing
the effect of the phenomenon upon their
houses. The dwellers in wooden cottages appear to have been most sensible
of its occurrence, and in some of the
large hotels of the city a considerable
amount of alarm prevailed, caused by
the ringing of the bells, the rustling of
the window frames and clashing of crockery, kitchen utensils, &c. At the
Imperial Hotel the terror and confusion
were so great that most of the inmates
left their apartments, and promenaded
the streets, where they imagined they
were safer than under anything in shape
of a roof. We hear that the walls of
the Benevolent Asylum experienced some
damage from the vibration, and reports
of trifling injuries having been done to
other buildings have reached us. In the
neighbourhood of Brighton and St. Kilda
the shock (some say there was more than
one) was severely felt, and the general
opinion appears to be that the line of
action was from east to west.

Printed at the “INDEPENDENT” Office.