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The D'Arcy referred to is the gentleman mentioned in another chapter as a member of the Survey Staff sent from Sydney in charge of M r . Russell. T w o or three days after, Mr. Russell supplied further particulars, including an extract from the oldest diary in the colony, except Batman's, which I give as a species of literary fossil, not often to be met with noyv-a-days:—" I find I was quite right in m y surmises as to the precise date of the earthquake. It took place on the night of the 25th March, 1837. I transcribe a bit of m y o w n journal. '24th March, 1837 : Fine day in the morning—cleared up, but windy—slept at Cowie's—dreadful night of wind. 25th : Slept at D'Arcy's tent on Banvon—bitten on the ankle yesterday by centipede ; very sore and bad. 26th, Sunday : R o d e with D'Arcy toyvards settlement—slept at Simpson and AVedge's.' " N o w , I saw to-day a lady of m y acquaintance yvho remembers as a child D'Arcy's tent at the Banvon, opposite where she lived, and the talk of our being disturbed by the earthquake at the time, and I remember on that single occasion, that being absent from m y o w n tent, D'Arcy and I had to share the same stretcher, which circumstance is connected in m y mind yvith the earthquake, and of being startled therewith. D'Arcy and I were frequent visitors at the house. So m u c h for the earthquake." Mr. Russell also kindly undertook to communicate yvith Mr. E. T. Newton, an old friend of his in the country, w h o yvas Batman's business m a n at the time, and he has supplied m e with the following extract from the reply of his correspondent:— " I cannotfixthe date of thefirstearthquake, although I felt it distinctly. It was as near midnight as possible. I was with a friend encamped on rising or rather high ground, near a creek known then as the Deep Creek, about fifteen or tyventy miles from Maribyrnong, on the Saltwater River. AVe had sheep there, and the m e n had been constructing brush yards, and had gone to bed in their tents tired, and with such an over-supply of strong rum, that they would not believe m y report of the earthquake when they had come to their right senses in the morning. T h e oscillations of the earth, though not violent, yvere too palpable to be mistaken by anyone; and I had never felt anything like it before, nor have I since that date." I think I have noyv fairly established the existence and period of Earthquake N o . 1. In 1841, Collingwood, then known as Neyvtown, was the refugium peccatorum of most of the rascaldom of the period. It was one of the queerest collections of back-slums imaginable, and how the rogues and vagabonds could content themselves with the hovel accommodation afforded by the place is difficult to be understood. Early on the morning ofthe 21st April, the "black sheep" were rudely disturbed in their slumberings by the shock of an earthquake yvhich shook them all in their lairs. They thought the end of the yvorld yvas at hand, and all Newtown, good and bad, turned out in trepidation, many of them half dressed, and fleyv in fear and trembling into Melbourne, where to their intense joy they learned there had been no premonitory warning of "the crack of doom," so they returned, tofindNeyvtown still in the land of the living, and were, no doubt, thankful for the long day vouchsafed to them. But the most alarming shock of earthquake ever experienced in the colony happened in Melbourne at half-past four p.m. of the 28th April, 1847. It was sharply felt throughout the toyvn, though almost instantaneous in its duration. A few houses in some of the streets yvere slightly shaken, and people rushed about in a state of considerable teiror. In one or two of the churches and larger buildings there yvere appearances of a strain, and certain slight settlements in the foundations yvere noticed. T h e Flagstaff Hill showed some effects of the subterranean entente, inasmuch as the staff employed in vessel-signalling was shattered in more than one place. I happened to be in the Supreme Court at the time, yvhere the shock frightened everyone. A smothered rumbling, as if the passage of heavy carriages in the earth, was heard, and the interior of the building seemed to rock. T h e persons in attendance yvere almost literally thunderstruck, and most of them rushed frightened into the open air. There was a special jury case on at the time, and Judge A'Beckett, unceremoniously adjourning the Court, hobbled yvith all his might off the Bench, for he yvas mostly in a state of gout or rheumatism, and had not the free use of his limbs. N o material damage was caused. At a quarter to twelve a.m. on the 12th October, 1848, another shock of earthquake yvas felt in Melbourne, but it was the slightest of any that had up to that time occurred,