But the velocity was less at less heights: for the key before spoken of, as thrown from off a shelf in a chamber in my house, was not thrown so far, in proportion to the height thro’ which it fell, as the bricks were from the top of the chimnies; and in my lower rooms nothing was thrown down, but a small bell in the garret was made to ring by it. Hence it appears, that our buildings were rocked with a kind of angular motion, like that of a cradle; the upper parts of them moving swifter, or thro’ greater spaces in the same time, than the lower; the natural consequence of an undulatory motion of the earth. But the agitation occasioned by this earthquake was not confined to the land: it was very sensible on the water, and even at considerable distances in the ocean. The vessels in our harbours were so shaken, that it seemed to those, who were in them, as if they were beating on the bottom. Some, that were in the bay, coming in from sea, thought they had run upon rocks or sands. One very uncommon effect of this concussion is related by several of our seafaring men, that almost immediately after the earthquake, large numbers of fish of different sorts, both great and small, came up to the surface of the water, some dead, and others dying. The center of our former earthquakes, as well as of this, seems to have been near the river Merrimac, about the latitude of 43° north, and 40 miles north from hence; many shocks having been felt in that neighbourhood, which did not extend to this place. The late Rev. Mr. Plant of Newbury, which is situated at the mouth of that river, has given a very particular journal, in _Philos. Transact._ Nº. 462. of the shocks felt there from 1727 to 1741, few of which were perceived here or at Boston. I remember none after the memorable 29th October 1727, beside that on 30th January 1728, about two in the afternoon; and that on 5th September 1732, which, by his account, did considerable damage at Montreal in Canada, but it was very small at Boston. That also on 6th February 1737, about a quarter past four in the afternoon, which he calls a considerable shock, was perceived at Boston; and so was that on 7th December following, a little before 11 in the night. From the conclusion of Mr. Plant’s journal, till the earthquake which is the subject of this letter, I know of none, but that which happened on Sunday June 3, 1744, at a quarter after ten in the morning. The roar of this was as loud as any I ever heard, but the shake not so great. The day was very fair and hot, with a little wind in the morning at W.S.W. which in the afternoon came round to N.N.W. The season preceding was hot and dry, there having been no rain from 23d May. On the 1st June, at four in the afternoon, Hauksbee’s thermometer stood at 5,2; on the 2d, at five in the afternoon, it was at 1, with high wind at S.W.; on the 3d, at eight in the morning, it was at 19,8; and at six 1-half in the afternoon at 3,8. From the 1st June to the 2d, at the hours just