Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-04-06
THE LEYiANT.
Terrific Earthduake at Mytelene-
Over a Thousand Lives 14Ost-Heart
reudinsu Scoros


Terrific AEarthduake at mytelene-
Over a Thousand Lives I.Ost-Heart.
rendimg Scenes.
lMytelene (March - correspondent of the Levant
-s sHerald1
On Thursday, the eth, the weather had
been close and unwholesomely hot; but as
thls is generally the case with the south
wind, which had been blowing for some
time, nothing was thought of it leastof all
was there any fear OF what followed
Though volcanic, as is proved by the nrl-
merous hot springs, the island had not DUR
ing the present generation -beenyvisited by
earthquake !; it was now, however, 70 have
a terrible Experiences of the phenomenon.
4 About bout R 4 A..sp "a sharp shock, lasting some
thfou ghout tile town, and before the fact
was well realized was followed by a second.
longer and much more violent one. Ihap-
pened at the moment to be down at the
pier of the Austrian Lloyd's agency, and
nearly half minute before the shock was
felt on shore saw the sea heave and foam
out in the port as If a submarine explosion
had taken place. Little time, however, was
left for surprise. In much less time than
take to write it the double thrill uuiVered
through the town, and, reeling like drunk
en- men, whole blocks of sand stone houses
collapsed as if they had been cardhouses.
Tn The Offices 9iGeS Stths agency and nearly al
Custom House, the light house office, and
the large oil mill, thus fell. Up in the
town entire streets similarly crumbled,
burying their inhabitants by hundreds in
the ruins. The fine old castle, the cathe-
dral, the Governors konak, the prison, the
mosques, and, believe, all the consular res
licences. more or less yielded to the violence
OF the shock, and are for the most part
mere heaps of ruins. The very solidity
with which the town was built has agra
waited the disastrous effects of the calamity
a; hundredf fold, both as regards the loss of
and destruction of property. The most
complete ruin has fallen upon the lower
part OF the town, where the earth literally
opened and swallowed a broad belt of
buildings right up from the sea to the slope
inland. At this point permanent sub
sidence of the ground has taken place, and
the sea has accordingly encroached far into
what on Thursday afternoon was one OF
the busiest parts of Mytelene. In fact to
sum up the disaster, more than half of our
beautiful town. the prettiest and most
lively perhaps. of all Che Leyant--is a des-
ert or ruins. GThe worst part of the calam-
ity is, of course, the loss OF life. AS yet
we can only guess at the extent of this :;
but 1T is thought that from 800 to 1000 have
perlshed, while as many more have been
manned and wounded in every way. Up
till to-day 120 bodies have, hear, been dug
out of the safer ruins; but how many may
be buried under Others whkh are too dan
gerous to be approximation only be sur
missed. Such OF the houses as are still
standing have all been abandoned, and the
whole surviving population is now scattered
oyer the hill-sides and among the gardens
outside the town-a few of them under
such covers as they have been able to i'm
provise, and the rest bivouacking without
shelter of any kind. Any attempt to de-
scribe the scene would be useless. Heart
rending gfiet, panic and confusion meet the
eye on every side.5 Already the want of
provisions is aggravating the distress, and
only speedy supply from Smyrna or the
capital can avert great additional loss of
life. One of the Austrian LlOyd's steam
ers, and French gunboat from Smyrna,
have landed quantity of biscuit and some
other stores, but in all not perhaps more
than days food for the place. 1t is earn
estly to be hoped that the Porte will at
once send down tents, biscuits and what
ever other stores can be quickest got to-
gether. But not the town of Mytelene
alone has suffered from this great calami-
ty; it has scattered ruin and death through
out the whole northern part of the island.
Hardly village has escaped, and not
merely property but life has been destroy
ed in nearly the whole. Molivo has been
all but entirely demolished, and several
hundreds of its 5000 or 1000 inhabitants
have. it is said, perished in the ruins. tits,
in fact, no exaggeration to say that half the
island has been laid waste, with a sacrifice
of human life that may be reckoned by
thousands. No such, disaster has ever be-
fallen Mytelene. e E zzb5Es