The Sun.
London, England, 1825-04-08 00:00:00

DREADFUL EA.RTIIQUAK Eat ALGIERS

EXTRACT OF A LETTER, ritoar ALGIERS, DATXT)INIAECII7.
On Wednesday, the ad
inst., this city and neighbourhood
was visited with a tremendous earthquake, which continued at
intervals for the five following days. It has thrown down sere-
,
ral houses and injured many others, and has totally destroyed
the town of Blida, one day's journey from this, burying in its
ruins nearly all the inhabitants. Out of a population of fifteen
thousand souls, chiefly Moen:, Jews, and Arabs, about three
hundred only have been saved, and those in a sadly muti-
lated state, The first two shocks which occurred, were at
two minutes, and at forty-two' minutes after ten a.m. were
extremely violent, and the motion both undular and perpendi-
cular. On the same evening, two more shocks occurred;
on Thurstley evening three, ,on Friday two, on Saturday two,
and on Sunday, between the hours of one and three, a.m., two
more, which, it is to he hoped, may proie the last. 'To-nior_
row I purpose going to visit the ruins of that ill:fated town,
where I am told a horrible scene of devastation presents itself.:
7,000 dead bodies have been already dug out. In one ot,
Supposed to be a Jewish seminary, the bodies of two hundred
and eighty children were found, and a- vast number of persons
in the ruins of the mosques, where the people had congregated,
the earthquake having occurred at the hour of prayer (ter,
o'clock.) In the immediate neighbourhood of the town, the
earth has opened in large interatices of from eight to. ten feet
wide, and as many deep; and it,is worthy 'of. remark,. that the
same phenomemoo which generally precedes 'the eruption of
Etna and Vesuvius, occurred at Blida—namely, all the wells
and fountains in the neighbourhood became perfectly dry. The
troops which the Government salt out to prevent plunder have
been attacked by 'cast bonds of the Cobaili, and have thus added
to the work of death. The
,Cobails are of a race totally distinet
from the Turks, Moors, or Arabs :'they are the descendepts of
the ancient Numidians; and inhabit the mountains of this part
of Africa, are perfectly independent, and have never been sub-
dued by the Turks. As an_lict graco; the Do has manu-
mitted all the slaves, and Tiai ordered mk public thanksgiving
for the salvation of this city. God knows whether we are to
experience any more of these 'horrible sisititions. There is
every appearance to the contrar.e, if the weather be any indi-
cation. l'eur mother and 'all of us hare, as you will easily
believe, been most dreadtkilly alarmed. We were afraid even of
going to cur beds, and spent the greatest part of 'our time on
the roof of the house, which is a' perfect fiat, and there we were
safe so far re;..rarded and thingfrom above, and, had the
a house,
given way, we should fiwre.stood"ii-triee of being,
on the ruins. There is one circumstance wthleh 7 have omitted
to mention—that an excellent haterriter'l have, kept'gradually
falling for some days before the earthquake, whilst the weather
indicated no change whatever; otherwise than that on the clay
,t happened my thermometer rose suddenly from 58 to
degrees, viii, h .s a .very
.extraordinary occurrence.