Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1879 — Earthquake Shocks. [ARTICLE]

Earthquake Shocks.

Chicago Journal. ! 4 j Some peculiar features are noted in connection with the earthquake shocks experienced recently in the Welland district of Canada and Northwestern New York. In the former section-the shocks were felt- very sensibly, and even alarmingly, between 2 and 3 o’clock in the morning. ■ The country thus affected extends from the southwestern shore qf Lake Ontario, at the eastern terminus of the Welland canal, and follows that canal to a point within a few miles of its western terminus in the northeast comer of Lake Erie, showing that its course must have been almost due north and south. At St. Catherines, Which is “a city built on a hill, the earthquake was so severe as to awaken people out of their slumbers, rumbling the earth ftWi ten to seconds, as if from the reverberations of a heavy clap of thunder. Houses were shaken and rattled, and a church bell was tolled twice, and a railway workshop ball once. The sky at the time was perfectly clear, with the stars shining. People who rose from their beds were rendered quite dizzy. The telegraph, later in the day, reg )r tod distinct earthquake shocks at ufifelo (at the eastern end of Lake Erie and but a few miles distant from the Welland district), about 12:30 in the afternoon, and at Look port, farmer east, in the Niagara district of New York, at 1:30 p. m. At Buffalo, house-windows were rattled as though struck by a sudden and violent gale. At Lockportj a loud report accompanied the shock, and houses were shaken.

According to these various accounts, there can be no doubt that there were two separate and distinct earthquakes within a radius of 100 miles. The difference in time plainly verifies this feet. In former times, according to established evidence, an ■ “earthquake belt” extended upward from Vermont through these very regions w here these shocks were felt.