230 NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
1692, which is spoken of as occurring on Sept. 8th of that year, twelve or thirteen
minutes after two o'clock in the afternoon, and lasting about one minute, making
most people who were sensible of it giddy for some time afterwards. This account
tallies exactly with the record of the same event preserved in the register of
St. Peter's Church, Colchester, in the handwriting of the then vicar, Rev. Robt.
Dickman, quoted in extenso in Messrs. Meldola and White's "Report on the East
Anglian Earthquake," pp. 11-13, wherein the earthquake is stated to have lasted
"for the space of a minute or more." The story of an earthquake lasting a
minute or more has (writes the editor of "The Essex Standard," from which we
quote) generally been somewhat ridiculed, but after all it receives confirmation in
this independent version of Thomas Witham's Commonplace Book, so that
probably the shock was one of a totally different character from the short, sharp
disturbance of April 22nd, 1884.
Earth Noises and supposed Slight Earthquake at Mersea and
Colchester.—During occasional visits to Mersea for the last few years, the
members of my family have noticed mysterious noises apparently coming up from
the earth, heard on quiet days, and especially at night. Last August I myself
repeatedly heard these sounds. Our cottage is close to the coast-line at East
Mersea, about four miles from the village of Peldon, where occurred one of the
maxima of disturbance in 1884. As stated in my letter in "The Standard" of
September 7th, the noises resemble in "some cases the slamming of a heavy
cellar door, and in others the shooting down of a load of coals or stones. During
the latter half of August I occupied a room on the ground floor of one of the
cottages, and repeatedly at night had opportunities of hearing these noises, and of
satisfying myself that they were subterranean, and were not thunder nor the result
of the firing of guns, as might at first be suspected. There are no cellars under-
neath the cottages, and East Mersea is an exceedingly quiet island, separated by a
broad estuary from a railway or other sources of vibration.
" On inquiry of the country folk in the neighbourhood, I found that these
subterranean noises were matters of common knowledge, and had been often
noticed this year by them when ploughing in the fields—they called them 'earth-
gruntings.' I am also informed that at Peldon, which suffered so severely from
the earthquake of 1884, similar noises have been heard, and that on more than
one occasion recently, pictures hanging on walls have been misplaced, and
articles on tables moved out of position without apparent cause."
It would only be by the aid of delicate instruments that reliable information
could be obtained as to the source of these noises, and to answer the question
whether real earth-tremors accompany them. Judging from my own experience,
and from the observations of my neighbours, I am strongly inclined to connect
these "earth-gruntings" with seismic disturbances. I am hopeful ere long to
obtain the loan of a seismograph, and so be enabled to register accurate data. At
present I simply put the above observations on permanent record.1
It is interesting to note that on September 10th, according to "The Essex
Telegraph," four distinct shocks, which are attributable to slight earthquakes, were
1 A long correspondence was carried on in "Nature" at the end of last and begin-
ning of this year, concerning remarkable sounds heard in various parts of the world, some
being known as "barisal guns" or "mist pouffers" which appear to be of atmospheric origin,
or, at least, are promulgated on the surface of the earth, while other sounds are described which
more nearly resemble those I noticed in Mersea, being of a subterranean nature. No very
confident theories have been broached with regard to the origin of these sounds, which, indeed,
may not be the same in all cases ; but the whole correspondence is very interesting, although too
long and full of detail to be summarised here.—W.C.