Page:The Philosophy of Earthquakes, Natural and Religious.djvu/88

22 paſſing from weſt to eaſt, in october. Coruſcations were ſeen juſt before that extenſive ſhock of 70 miles long felt from Lancaſter to Wrexham, on april 2, laſt. Fire-balls more than one were ſeen in Rutland, and Lincolnſhire: and particularly obſerv’d. And Mr. Smith from Peterborough writes, that a fire-ball was ſeen the morning of the earthquake, in the upper part of Northamptonſhire. All theſe kind of meteors are rightly judg’d to proceed from a ſtate of electricity in the earth and atmoſphere: and how far they are actually concerned in cauſing earthquakes, time, and accurate obſervation muſt inform us.

9ly, Mr. Johnſon in both his letters to me, on the firſt and ſecond earthquakes, at Spalding, remarks particularly, of their effects being moſtly ſpread to the north and ſouth, and eſpecially felt on the ſea coaſt. We may obſerve, that ſuch is the direction of Spalding river, which both conducts, and ſtrengthens the electric vibration: conveying it along the ſea-ſhore thence, up to Boſton channel; and ſo up Boſton river to Lincoln, as we diſcern, by caſting our eye on a map.

We obſerve further, that the main of this ſecond earthquake diſplay’d its effects along, and between the two rivers, Welland and Avon: and that from their very origins, down to their fall into the ſea. It likewiſe reach’d the river Witham, which directed the electric ſtream that