Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1868-11-04
THE RECENT EA IEICTe
Extraordinary Phenomena.

The earthquakes at San Francisco on
Wednesday last, some twelve or thirteen
IN number, extended, as it appears pref
ty much along tie whole coast line of
California, and back to the foot hills of
the Sierra Nevada, or snowy mountains, /
which are part of the great volcanic
chains of the American continent
Earthquake s come FROM some volcanic
disturbances, and we dare say shat all
these volcanic perturbations in both hem
ispheics since May last may be traced to
the grand eruption of sthat month of the
| terrible Mauna Loa Of the Sandwich Is
lands, tne king of all the earth's vol
canoes. The eruption, we conjecture,
caused such a commoton of the fiery
fluids incl -sed within the thin shell of
our globe that they have been from time
to time breaking out at various chimnegs
and shaking the earth more or less sew
erely at various thin places ever since.
1t is a remara able fact, while from the
18th to the 18th Of August last those
fearful earthquakes came upon Ecuador
and Peru, involving in ruin numerous
towns and cities along the coast for hun
dreds OF miles, that on the 18th of Au-
gust the same phenomena were felt and
seen IN Yokohama, in Japan, and along
the southern and eastern coast Of Austria
la, and that on the goth pretty severe
! earthquake shook down a number of
buildings at Peshewur, in India. These
almost simultaneous disturbance were
doubtless the result of the pressure of the
liquid lire from one side right through
the heart of the earth against the other
side of the shell. These shakes which
they have had in California came from
the agitation impaired to thealava which
underies the mparatively thin crust of
| the western section of our continue
East of the Mississippi river we respose
upon thick, solid and reliable crust.
We have no volcanoes in this section.
because we have no use for these safety
valves and escape pipes. We are all
right. But in 1911. it will be remember
ed by some, there was an earthquake at
New Madrid, on the west side of the
Mississippi, from which some forests went
down and some little lakes were created
! From the west side Of the Mssissippi.
therefore, we may assume that the crust
| Of the earth, to the Pacific, especially in
the valleys, is comp ratiYely thin, and
the two sections otherwise are as widely
different as Europe and Asia. The con.
tinent east from the Mississippi is liko
| Europe, and west like Asia.
But we have spoken of the greet vol
canio chain Of America. This chain of
mountains and 6ubterranean fires extends
from Cape Horn and Terra del Fuego, or
the land of the fire, up to Mount St. Elias,
in Alaska Through South America it
is the backbone of the continent through
| Central America and Mexico it is scatter
ed about, but abounds in volcanoes and
earthquakes.
At the southern boundary Of the Unit
ed States two great chains branch off to
the northward, the ROCKY Mountains and
the Sierra Nevada. The Rocky Moun-
tain chain is the backbone proper of
North America; but it is no longer vol
canic 1t was, in ages gone by, but its
craters have become extinct, and are
lakes. West of this back bone chain, on
the way to Great Salt Lake, we have
Fremont's Great Basin, an isolated region
of some five hundred mi les wide and sew
en- hundred miles long, the water. courses
OF which are lost in the sands of the de-
sert, or, expanding into lakes, are evapor-
ated by the sun. This Great Basin, from |
the water marks on the mountains of the |
rim, was at one time an arm of the ocean. |
or an inland sea like the Caspian. but
was at later period lifted up by the |
fiery forces inside the earth and made |
dry land. All this vast and inhospitable
region, with the region northward to
Oregon, was aptly described by Fremont
as volcanic region hardly yet cooled |
down-''a land of fracture and violence |
and fire" The numerous not springs in
the mountains and valleys and the vol
canlc chemicals of the ashy soil of the
plains, support Fremont inthis description
On the west side Of this Great Basin
we have the Sierra Nevada, or the con-
tinuation of the living volcanic chain
from South America. It runs along par
allel with the Pacific coast, hundred
miles off, more or less, all the way to
Mount st. Elias, in Alaska. This chain
has numerous peaks, rising from $4,000
10 1900 feet above the sea, and TWO of
them-Mount Hood, in Oregon, and
Mount st. Helena, further north-were
reported to be smoking last autumn from
volcanic combustion. At all events un.
der this mountain chain, in its whole
length, the volcanic forces of the earth /
are comparatively near the surface; and so,
tor centuries to come, perhaps, all the
countries on Goth sides will be liable to
earthquakes. Hereafter, FIVE and six
story buildings will be rather risky
business in San Francisco, at least fo1 a
year or two, though such a shaking as
they had on Wednesday last may not &C.
cur again, herhaps, for fifty years to come.
a PROMISING BOoTBLACK-A case of
ION 10 p1favr,