, 1859-08-17

THE SOUND HEARD FoR FIFTY nlLEx

Reported Eartkiaake ii New Terk.
TIE socsp Hrl1D 1oR 1lrrr u11Ex ;
i 43vsee ;j Hs5s.sss.--H1es sAes III cs.,sss..s
eas..'s cs.'a-De*' . 's.''.r, -: s*r'"*.. -
~ lr'roa the rroy 1nt.. Aas; 1,.l - :.e
Everybody sho was not In profound saaa,ber:
must have b4aA startled thio morning bJ one Of
the aost renarkablc and thas .fsr myster!ou.
octna1snoes that has, during & losg period Of
time, transpired in this section u ths countIy:=
At about seten o'clock, *hfie the Ky was
perfectly cloudlcss, while hardly breath Of air
was stirring. while not single indication rre-
vailed Of natural commotion Of any sort what
ever, -thtre-was = terrific, shocking; detuuatirg
report. accompanied apparently by two sharp
echoes. It rasas i the sorad bid totns ttona
the sky-but ahefs 2ere no eloudsf not ainGfe
indication Of the prevalence Of electricity, and
sthas explanation could not Be snl1i 1ifa1ned The
force Of the conclusion Wa8 % great that houses
vere shaken; that persons. Walking in the
street felt the grotud rihrate undernsath them
that men Wis Raa just commenced work upon
buildings, insfhttively dropped their tools, aud
looked TO sec Whist was The natter. that little
strange questions Of their parenta
derful phenomenon. Everybody asked- mo
body aatrered. Some had heard steamboat
boilers burst, mud the noise 'Was "exacty the
same" Others Tecollected that ut Schlghtcoke
and Bennington are powder mills which hare
TO hear dreadful story spoh, from SONG point.
80 tar as we, can learn, ali these surnises are
incorrect No boiler has been burst IN this ri
cinity. The Ida Hill percussion cap factory
has not been destroyed, despite Fumors to the
contrary. The Schaghtcoke and Bennington
powder mills arc in operation, and no disaster
WAS heard at Schaghdcokc as plainly IS at this
point, and the people there supposed the Ben
nington works were blown up. 1t Bennington,
which is thirty-two miles from here, it was not
less distinct, and there the conclusion was that
Schnghticoke asthe point whence ii proceeded.
At Eagle Bridge, it was forcible en5ngh to jar
bush the people run in docls to the docks,
supposing some steamboat on the Albany side
Of the river had burst its boiler 1t Schodack
men who were ut work in the fields heard the
report and felt the shock With great distinct
mesa. At Abba folks were much startled, and
turned their eyes citywnrd, expecting to see
something to indicate its cause.
About ten o'clock rumors prevailed that the
magazine ut Waserrliet Arsenal had exploded,
and twenty-five men were killed. There was
enough probability in this statement to excite
attention and ensure belief in the minds Of
rush in the direction Of the ferries Many were
led up the bill, 10 yisit "tbe ruins Of tie per-
czis.ten factory"- By the way, is small
building, entirely isolated from any other sttuc-
turr. Some were induced 10 walk down to the
steamboat dock, By being told that its boiler
was exploded while rounding In nt The dock
One wag gave it as his opinion that the news Of
II E1-f
hotels Lad Just reached Washington. and the
venerable President had "b!owed up." Others
suggested that perhaps Governor W'ise's
"unitcd Virginia had collapsed.
Fourteen wagons loaded with powder had
been started OUT from the Schashticokc works
this morning. When the managers Of these
mills learned that an explosion had not, as they
nington, they. concluded that the powder On the
wagons had been blown up. and sent rnessen-
gers in pursuit Of them. The fourteen teams
arrived safely in town during the forenoon,
however.
So the mystery remained unexplained and
evidently ineaplieahle- But there is 4 theory
At hand backed up bypersonal observation. We
give it as We get it, and leave scientific men to
explain Or dispose Of it as they sec fit~
John +. Ball, County Clerk, assures us that
the noise heard was the result Of IN explosion
Of meteor in the sky. Mr.. Ball resides in
Pittssown, in this county, and is perfectly
honorable and reliable gentleman. lie Informs
us TINT he had just finished his breakfast, and
'Fas staudink in bis door-yard when he OBJ
serycd bright light, in southerfy direction
from his house over the town of Grafton, and
descending very rapidly to the ground in q
northwesterly course. This was About 7.2O A..
n. Mr. Bali last saw it when about half d mile
abore the earth, when it disappeared, and in a
mr. mn hn 1oa%S 9kn ~ n
was very loud and resembled thunder. He
had previously called his family to view the
meteor, and they oil observed the light and
heard the explosion. Mrs. Ball insists that
there were three separate e1plosions-onc
much louder than the others-sndin in support Of
her statement, Mr. DaA SAYS hc say three dis
tinct clouds Of smoke in the track Of the me-
teor, which appeared I'd be mile or more
apart. The smokc wis Visible for some time;
bnt was finally lost to sight, The meteor ap.
peared to be at L Distance Of about twenty
miles from 1tr- Balls residence, and looked
ike large-sized sky-rocket.
i has hetet hecn se;t!ed that meteor does
By what possibility it could produce three re-
ports !; such bodies are not generally charged
on the revolver principle. But if q meteor
could explode, and cause three reports, our
renders can judge as well as we can what must
hare been the itnuensity Of its volume and the
Auaee " LIZ GAE!osioue. ~ Al1At taoSc reports
distinctly audible for distance Of forty Of fifty
miles in npy direction. We hase lively rccol-
lection of the 0swego meteor hoax. Ii would
havc required larger stone than that was re-
presented to have beetl, to cause this .phenome-
non We confess ne IRE puzzled. We incline
to the opinion TINT this section Of country has
experienced a:slight shock Of earthquake. 4
gentleman from Venezuela. where such occur.
Tcnces are common, says that this was his iu,-
mediate conclusion. In every way, according
to his opinion, the shock resembled that pro-
duced By IN earthquake.
i, To q correspondent who suggests the theory
TINT the noise was thunder-clup, the Troy
7fmes says.-
"There are various arguments against the
idea TINT to us prevent its entertainment. Ec-
centricity undoubtedly is, We have never heard
Of IN explosion where there was no collection,
aud-newspapers to the contrary notwithstand-
ing-we are Jet to believe that there can be
collections requiring that distribution in equli-
Lrium manifested 81 thunder shocks in IN hen en-.
trcly clear and cloudless sky. Again, the force
Of the shock was such that it was heard for 4
distance Of fifty miles. Our correspondent can
reason with himself how great, then, it must
have been over that particular locality where
the discharge he supposes occurred. It was
the earth. We do not believe this could hare
proceeded from thundcr-clap, and especially
from a shock ut q distance Of some miles. For
these and other reasons We conclude TINT our
correspondent is wrong, and incline to tl,e
opinion that the phenomenon resulted from tho
slight shock Of earthquake, which, supposin9
such to have been the case, would harc been
equally noticeable at Schodack and Bennington,
whereas q concussion resulting from an electri-
cal or meteoric xploalou-admittiug the last to
be possible-would have been limited in its ef.
fecs, ind less severe in proportion to the squire
Of the distance trayersed by the sound"
The Albany Arqas Of Aug, Is says:
ave are inclined to think that it was gentle
earthquake. Although We cannot learn that it
was felt in this cit5, We hare been assured BY
fno or three subscribers from the towns Of
Cumberland and New Scotland, who were ii
onr countiug.room yesterday, that the same
phenomenon was experienced in those vicinitiea
soon after o'clock Thursday morning. Tue
heavy rumb1ing sound and vibration Of the
earth continued, they ray, for two or three min
utes, proceeding from the southwest and dying
away 10 the northeast. When they gave US this
| information thew were ignorant that any such
thing had been experienced anywhere else"
Tornado ON tho Upper Missouri.
We learn from various gentlemen connected
with the late military expedition into the upper
| country, that on Monday morning last, that re-
| giou was swept by a terrific tornado, tlat blew
down and injured houses, twisted up large trees,
blew over the corn crops, and did great deal
| Of damage besides. In other ways- II extended
| up rs far as Cambridge, where three or four
houses were blown orer. The soldiers describe
| we're overturned, and oae coto Nosra iato Tie
len thar srtiIa ~ srnra