The Express.
London, England, 1868-10-24 00:00:00

THE EARTHQUAKE IN CALIFORNIA.

Although the news which has just reached us
from California probably points to a catastrophe
far less destructive in its nature than the earth-
quake which recently savaged the shores of Peru,
yet there can be little doubt that the calamity
which has befallen San Francisco and its neigh-
bourhood is a very terrible one. Wo have not yet
received, indeed, the full particulars of the event,
but we have heard enough to be enabled to recog-
nise the general character of the shock which has
been experienced throughout California. The
mere fact that the earthquake has been felt over so
wide an extent of country—•• throughout the whole
of California, and several of the neighbouring
states," the account tells us—is not in itself inli-
eative of the energy of the earthquake's destruc-
tive action, since there have been earthquakes
which have been felt over yet wider districts
and yet have worked comparatively little mischief.
But the account of the condition of the city of
San Francisco shows that this earthquake belongs
to the most destructive class of subterranean dis-
turbances.' "The town," we are told, '• is in many
parts a complete heap of ruins—houses, stores,
churches, and other buildings being razed." In
the lower part of the city the damage has been
very severe as d she fissiasixr
•fp,st Ist Wi ;XL
passage irrjais peoounts whir lave reach us is
that 'Which refers to iheloss of life presumed of
have been7caused by the catastrophe. We are told
that this loos is inconsiderable; " but, of course,"
adds the account, "no correct idea can be formed
as yet of the number of persons who are missing."
This passage brings home to us with fearful force
the terrible nature of a class of catastrophes with
which we in England are happily unfamiliar.
When we hear of a city on the other side of the
globe being desolated by an earthquake shock, we
are apt to attach to the intelligence only that
vague sort of meaning which we ascribe to narra-
tives of historical events. We do not attempt to
realise the true character of the disaster, the
manner in which it affects so many hundred., or
thousands of our fellow-creaturce. But that
phrase, with which we are but too familiar,
the statement which so often accompanies the
records of great disasters—that "as yet no Rea
can be formed of the number of persons who are
missing"—brings home to us at once tho true
nature of the misfortune which has befallen the
inhabitants of San Francisco. Re picture to our-
selves the agonies of fear and doubt, or of hope
more painful in its uncertainty even than fear,
which thousands must be now experiencing. We
say now, for so rapidly has the news been flashed
across the continent of America, and along the
depths of the Atlantic, that as we write scarcely
forty-eight hours have elapsed since the earth-
quake happened. But even the loss of life which
has been caused by the earthquake affords a very
insufficient measure of the misery oceasionel by a
catastrophe of this sort. The damage to property
is readily expressed in thousands or hundreds of
thousands of dollars ; but it is not so e.►ay to
express the desolation of the families whose homes
have been ruined. We mud with natural pity and
indignation of the sorrows of evicted tenants in
Ireland; but the earthquake is more ruthless than
the most stony-hearted landlord. Without warn-
ing, without time to save their household stores,
hundreds of families have been expelled from
their homes—we were about to say into the streets,
but we should rather say into the rows of ruins
which once were their own and their neighbours'
dwellings.

It may Le—we trust it will jirove so—that the
destruction caused by the Californian earthquake
has not been so terrible as the account of the con-
dition of San Francisco would lead us to antici-
pate. The earthquakes which have shaken Cali-
fornia have not been frequent, nor have they
usually been very destructive. Farther east, in
the valley of the Mississippi, and farther south,
around the volcanoes of Jorullo and Popocatapetl,
subterranean movements of great violence have
frequently been experienoed. The latter district
of disturbance seems to be connected at onoe with
four regions of subterranean action—namely, with
those which underlie the West Indies, the valley
if the Mississippi, the Rocky Mountains, and the
Sierra Nevada. The last-named region, to which
the earthquake just announced belongs, is not in
reality limited to the Sierra Nevada, but appears
to extend from Cape St. Lucas in the south to
Mount St. Elias (volcanic) in 60 dogs. north lati-
tude. It seems impossible nut to associate to-
gether in one system all the disturbances which
have been experienced during the past twelve
months in the western hemisphere. We have seen
the West Indian Islands shaken by a tremendous
convulsion ; then five months later followed the sub-
marine disturbance which caused so much mischief
in the Sandwich Islands, and led to the subsidence of
Ilaw cell ; four months later the great eurthquake of
Peru took place; and, lastly, we hear of the dis-
turbance of a region as large as England, France,
and Spain together. Surely we may now hope
that the subterranean forces which have been
so long in action have at length oompleted their
work, that the elastic gases and fluids which
have he( n seeking for an outlet have escaped,
and that so the hemisphere, which has been so
much disturbed, will be at rest for a while. A
long period must elapse, however, before the
mischief which has been worked can be repaired.
Many willing hands will, we doubt not, be extended
to relieve those who have been the victims of so
niany and such appalling catastrophes. But all
that we can do will go but a small way, unless
it be done quickly. We do not in this awe say
merely bin dot qui cite dot, but that ho
might as well not give at all who does not
give at once. We commend to the attention of
our readers the account which we published yes-
terday of the earthquake in Peru. Although the
losses which the inhabitants of the country have
experienced, and the privations which they have
bad to endure, were not the subjects with which
the report was principally intended to deal, yet
it is unpossible to read the narrative without
being impressed by the enormity of the disaster.
viewed in relation to the private and personal
sufferings of the people of the oountry. Consider,
for example, the real meaning of such sentences
as the following, which refer to the passage of the
great sea-wave over the town of Iquique :—" The
time that the wave took to pass over the land was
very short, but the destruction was com-
plete, and as the sea went off to its origi-
nal bounds everything in the lower parts of
the town was swept away. Machinery, houses,
bags of ore, and incruhandise, all shared the same
fate--they were either sunk among the rocks, or
floated away in the bay ; and when the wave had
passed no traces were loft to tell the people where
their houses formerly stood." And again, a few
lines farther on, we read, " All the survivors passed
that night on the sand, shocks of earthquake fre-
quently alarming thew ; their groat privation was
want of water, as there was none within forty
miles of them." Surely no more pitiable
picture was ever presented than that which these
words exhibit to us. Almost every trial which
can afflict humanity—cold, hunger, thirst, sorrow
for the loss of near and dour relatives, and dread
of the dangers which menaced themselves—such
were among the actual sufferings experienced by
those who were crowded on the sands of
Iquique on the night of August 13-14, while
the loss of their property, their homes, and
their means of subsistence, threatened them—
and still threatens thent--with prospective misery.
And though it should not be necessary to eneou-
i age the benevolence of Englishmen by such con-
siderations, yet we must remind our readers of
the large number of our countrymen who have
suffered by the catastrophe. Of rorosty lost

ONE PENNY.

in Iquique (valued at no less than 500,000 f.) scarcely
any belonged to native Peruvians. The trade of
Aries also, we read, was " almost entirely in the
hands of the English and other foreigners, who
had much influence, and all other public institu-
tions requiring money and influence were left to
them to support and manage."