"When daylight dawned on the following morning, it was found that the damage done was not very great. Most of the clocks had stopped and some few lamps and glasses were broken, but upon the whole the damage done was very inconsiderable. Groups of Chinese were seen in the gardens, roadsides and fields, engaged in gathering hairs which are said to make their appearance on the surface of the ground after an earthquake takes place. This proceeding attract a great deal of attention from some of the foreign residents of Shanghae, and the Chinese were closely examined on the subject. Most of them fully believed that these hairs made their appearance only after an earthquake had occurred, but could give no satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon, while some more wise than their neighbours did not hesitate to affirm that they belonged to some huge subterraneous animal whose slightest shake was sufficient to move the world."

(from R. Fortune's "A Residence Among the Chinese", published in 1857)

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