with such noises, as to occasion
great alarm, especially one which occurred on a Sabbath while the
congregation was assembled." The year 1839, however, was the time of
the great earthquakes. Writing in 1842 in the last Statistical
Account, the Rev. John Ferguson, minister of Monzievaird, says:--"At
this time they began to be frequently felt, nearly 20 shocks being
occasionally experienced in 24 hours. The most violent one happened
about ten o'clock on the evening of 23d October, 1839. The shock
seemed to pass along through the parish of Monzievaird from north-west
to south-east. For a second or two every house for miles around the
village of Comrie was shaken from top to bottom; and while the motion
was passing away to the eastward it was accompanied by a tremendous
noise like the roar of 100 pieces of ordnance discharged at once and
gradually dying away in the distance. This earthquake was partially
felt throughout a great part of Scotland, as far as Inverness, Dunbar,
Berwick, and the banks of Loch Awe. In this neighbourhood it was very
alarming. Several individuals fainted, and most of the inhabitants of
the village of Comrie spent the whole night in the streets, or in the
churches, which were very properly opened for prayer. Many stone dykes
were thrown down, walls of houses rent, and chimney-stalks shattered,
the stones being frequently shifted from their places, but no serious
damage was sustained. The shocks have again diminished both in
frequency and violence since the autumn of 1839." Another severe shock
occurred in November, 1846, but from that date they have decreased both
in number and intensity. The cause of these subterranean commotions is
in this as in similar cases a matter of conjecture, but there is good
cause for thankfulness that they have hitherto been attended with no
serious damage to life or property.

The Session records of some parishes in Scotland are of some historical
value, but this is not so with those of Comrie. Beyond the perpetual
reiteration of cases of discipline and doles to the poor, there is
little to be found in them to throw light upon the Christian life and
work of the parish. So meagrely kept were these records that until the
year 1829 the Christian name and surname of the Moderator and Clerk
never appear in the minutes--not even the Secession of 1843 is
recorded, though the minister left the church with a great majority of
the congregation to worship upon Tomach