Page:The Philosophy of Earthquakes, Natural and Religious.djvu/74

8 cages put their heads under their wings, as to hide themſelves.

June 21, at the Royal Society, Mr. Jackſon potter at Lambeth, gave an account of ſome boats, cobles, and lighters in the river, at that time; the people in them ſeem’d to feel, as if a porpoiſe, or ſome great fiſh, had heav’d and thump’d at the bottom of the veſſels. This is ſometimes the caſe of ſhips at ſea, when all is perfectly calm: which ſeems evidently owing to an electrical impreſſion on the water.

In the evening-poſt of june 23, we had a paragraph from Venice, that a terrible earthquake had been felt lately in the little rock iſle of Cerigo, in the Mediterranean, ſouth of Morea. It threw down a great number of houſes; and above 2000 of the inhabitants were buried in the ruins.

Another earthquake about that time, happen’d in Switzerland; which ſplit a vaſt, rocky mountain; and an old caſtle wall of an immenſe thickneſs.

All theſe circumſtances, and many more, confirmed me in my former opinion. But ſince then, theſe wonderful movements have ſtalk’d round the globe: and again been lately felt in our own iſland; happily for us, to the terror only, of many thouſand people: beſide thoſe concuſſions of this ſort that appear’d in the weſtern parts, in the more early time of the year. I