84
The East Anglian Earthquake.
the middle of the slate roof, and presenting the spectacle of a
row of four outhouses with a hole at tho same position
through the roof of each. The chimneys had in this case all
fallen over towards the N.W.
Mr. J. Edwin Wilkins, yacht builder, was standing in his
yard at the time of the disturbance, near the stern of the
"Medora," a new 150-ton yacht, which was well shored up on
the stocks in a line nearly N.E. and S.W. The oscillation of
the vessel was distinctly seen, one of the after shores dropped
and the yacht was lifted off its block and the bow shifted an
inch and a quarter. The chimney and part of the gable at
the end of the joiner's shop was thrown down towards the
S.W. and broke through the roof of a shed, much damaging
a small 3-ton yacht beneath. Mr. Wilkins informs me that
he was looking at this row of buildings, in a direction nearly
S.E. and at a distance of 80 feet, when he saw the chimney
" break off and describe a slight curve in the air, the upper
part coming down crown undermost" and making a hole
through the roof of the shed.38 In this same ship-yard a
38 It was reported in some of the papers (J. E. Taylor, in ' Hardwicke's
Science Gossip, No. 231, June, 1884, p. 124; J. Edmund Clarke, ' Nat.
Hist. Journ., vol. viii., June 15th, 1884, p. 80) that Mr. Wilkins's observa-
tions had enabled him to calculate the vertical displacement of the earth
at Wivenhoe, and as this seemed a matter of considerable importance,
Mr. J. C. Shenstone, at my request, kindly went over to Mr. Wilkins's
yard to inspect the place and obtain this gentleman's evidence. I finally
received a carefully prepared drawing to scale, accompanied by very full
explanations. The data thus furnished are, however, by no means
satisfactory, and the amount of displacement found certainly cannot be
admitted, the more especially as the drawing indicates a surface wave in
the solid earth having the enormous and impossible amplitude of six feet.
The following is the observation in question :—
As already mentioned above, Mr. Wilkins was standing 30 feet from,
and looking at, a row of buildings towards the S.E., the buildings
running in a direction N.E. and S.W. Along the upper part of the
buildings, which are 30 to 40 feet high, there is a row of windows
belonging to the workshops facing N.W., and a corresponding row runs
along the opposite (S.E.) face of the buildings overlooking Bath Street,
which bounds the yard on this side. Under ordinary circumstances, an
observer standing in the yard at the point occupied by Mr. Wilkins,
could not see through the upper windows and across the buildings into