It came on suddenly, and lasted two minutes, but the time appeared much longer.

The rocking of the ground was very sensible.

The undulations appeared to my companion and myself to come from due east, whilst others thought they proceeded from south-west: this shows how difficult it sometimes is to perceive the direction of the vibrations.

There was no difficulty in standing upright, but the motion made me almost giddy: it was something like the movement of a vessel in a little cross-ripple, or still more like that felt by a person skating over thin ice, which bends under the weight of his body.
A bad earthquake at once destroys our oldest associations: the earth, the very emblem of solidity, has moved beneath our feet like a thin crust over a fluid;--one second of time has created in the mind a strange idea of insecurity, which hours of reflection would not have produced.

In the forest, as a breeze moved the trees, I felt only the earth tremble, but saw no other effect.