202 The East Anglian Earthquake.
the effects of such an intense action as Abberton and Peldon
yet remains to be accounted for, and we can only offer the
conjecture that Fingringhoe, being in the path of both the
direct and reflected waves, may have heen an area of interference
in which the waves met in opposite phases, and to some
extent neutralised each other's effects. On the other hand,
at Langenhoe, further to the S.W., the phases of the waves
may have coincided, and may thus have increased the de-
structive effects at that place. The same explanation will
account also for the excessive destruction at Wivenhoe, if we
suppose that at this place the direct and reflected waves
coincided in phase.
So far the explanation offered appears to us to accord
sufficiently well with the observed facts to warrant its accept-
ance as in some degree probable, but the complexity of the
problem is too great for us to insist upon very great weight
being attached to our interpretation. The difficulty in the
case of Mr. Parkinson's observations is increased, as we have
already hinted (p. 66), by the possibility of the observers
having been unconsciously deceived as to the direction in the
following manner :—
In the above figure F represents the position of Fingring-
hoe and L that of Langenhoe. According to the experience
of the observers the shock travelled from F to L, the distance
between these points being about two miles. If we now
suppose the general direction of propagation to have been the
reverse, i.e., from L to F (direct wave), the observer at F,
looking towards the N.E., may have first experienced the
preliminary tremors which, by throwing his body into
oscillation, may have caused him to suppose that the ground
in front of him was moving. The tremors would be succeeded
by the shock-phase of the movement which in the present
case caused the observer to turn round towards the S.W.,
where the dust arising from the damage to the church would
have caught his eye, and at the same time he would notice
the ruined tower, thus concluding that the effects witnessed