The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-06
THE YEAR OF sTERRORS


thO Hsavsns-MetsOrs, Comets, and
RevOlutiOns-Tho Islands that bIee
Away, and the Mountains that are not
FOund--Ths Appalling WONDERS o.
1e65-The Plaques that are Written ."
tho Book.
Since the wonderful revelations OF the ILas- I,al
tOurian theory were published, al1ailss annouuDls
chances An, tf,e condition OF our globe ana OF
tbe n1snatarv svstem in which IL is embraced,
Ar attontion Of mankind has been continually
arrested by astounding natural phenomena.
Fearh,I thunderstorms, earthquakes, vol
aanjc eruptions both by land and sea, lorna
Aces and foundations, have followed each other
Win scarcely any intermissOn; and at this
moment there is widespread mourning in
averv one of the four quarters of the world
we inhabit, for immense losses of life and pro-
perty, occasioned by these commissions of
nature.
Frightful typhoons at Porto Rico, st. Do
ningO, and st. Thomas, sweeping, as we learn
by the latest advices, along the Gulf of Mexico
and adjacent regions to MatamOras, thence
westward to the Pacific, hurting death and
ruin as far northward as the shores of Alaska,
and finally swOoping down upon Australia,
China, Japan, and the British East Indies;
The submersion Of the island of Tortola for
many hours; the sudden eruption of Vesuvius,
and consequent volcanic perturbation of Htna
the threatened eruption of mountains in our
own Territory of Montana, and the sulphurous
cOntagrati0ns extending for scores Of leagues
in the country west of the Yellowstone; the
alarming activity of a crater in the populous
Z valley OF Mexico, whose fires have been appa-
rently extinct for oenturies shocks of earth
quake in Portugal, Russia, Bokhara and other
portions Of the globe, augmented in their effect
by the singular solar dissertations observed
within the year, and the sublime meteorc dis
play, visible over two continents, on the morn
\ ing of the 18th instant, have convinced the
learned that the cosmic SHE'LL upon the outer
surface Of which we live, the vast system that
embraces it, and even the ethereal spaces be-
yOnd, extending for myriads of millions of
leagues into the Milky Way, are now under
going some peculiar Vioissitudes. Active
readers are aware that upon the year 1867 has
been concentrated full stream of prophecy
from seers of every creed and nationality and
that dozens of them insist upon the certainty
Of general cataclysm in the heavens and on
the earth to come before New Years.
What there is real in these antieipations we
shall not presume to decide. Our purpose
is simply to review the situation yery
rapidly, while furnishing, in brief, some notes
OF the celestial and atmospheric phenomena
that have appalled, our race in times gone by.
THB DEIUeE,
of which we have any written record. All
nations, in using this peculiar expression,
refer to the general inundatiOn Of which Noah
and his family were the sole survivors, accord
ing to the Mosaic narrative. The eye of pro-
found science has, however, discovered the
indisputable traces of at least fifteen deluges,
or SO to speak, in other words, fifteen grand
variations by which the sea and the land have
been made to change places. How many more
preceded these it is for Omniseience alone to
d know. These changes are accounted for by
\ the comparatively late discovery of the comic
4 movement of our globe, which causes the pre-
cession Of the equinoxes, and is fully COM
pleted once in every 25, S6S years. BY this
movement the earth reverses its entire atti-
H tude and causes the oceans and the continents
ultimately to exchange places. For instance,
/. there can be no manner of doubt that the solid
ground on which we now repose was once the
bed of a sea, in which our mountain submits
were islands and promontories, if they
. emerged at all, and that it will be so again.
But these transformations, appalling to con-
template when fully effected, are the gradual
. work of ages, eliminating here and there,
v however, in calamities precipitated by some
great perturbation of the atmosphere or some
sudden volcanic action. 1t is to these outside
influences, heightened by the eocentricity of
. vast planetary bodies, such as comets, etc.,
| that we owe the danger to which we are eX
posed and which has often burst into the
reality of dreadful calamities, as it now seems
y threatening to do.
The tabled land of the Atlautides did once
really exist, as we could perhaps prove, had
we here the space. The present bed of the
Atlantic Ocean was then blooming in the rays
of the sun, and full Of life, while the surface
now beneath our feet was fathomG deep below
Hhe pillows. While we write, the ocean is
gaining ground-and rapidly too, ON Europe,
and losing il in America; our shores are
emerging; those Of Britain Scandinavia,
Russia, France, etc., are sinking From the
Neapolitan shore one can look down upon the
masonry Of ancient temples that once were
high upon the land, and now are many feet
beneath the waves. But all geological nara
lives note these facts from year to year. Let
as mention a few instances.
The Church of ST. Denis de Caux, now,
with the parish that surrounded IT, swept
over by the pillows at the distance Of two miles
from land at the mouth of the roadstead OF
Havre, stood high and dry in the eleventh
century, and was not finally engulfed until
1878.
Near Rochelle, also in France the town of
Chatetaillon has been swallowed little by little
by the waters, The Jersey Islands, too, un-
dOubtedly once formed portion of the north
ern mainland, and connected France with Eng
land by an isthmus.
At Douarnenez, not far from Nantes, the sea
is undermining the cliffs, and steadily advan-
cling to the invasion of the adjacent district.
1t has been calculated, too, that in few CEN
turies the city OF Bordeaux will be completely
covered with the sands of the sea-
Similar inroads are noticeable along The
Scottish coast; and at Wexford in Irs1and