Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1868-12-26
From the St. Louis Times Of October 18TH
A Wonderful Phenomena.

!
traordinary stories ever read. or written
has, since a late hour nst night, been gain
ing ground in certain quiet quarter Of the
city. 1t is 80 marvellous that one could
scarcely believe it to be anything but the
chimera of madmau's brain, If it were not
confirmed by scientific facts and by vast
number of the theories Of modern philoso-
phy. It is difficult to determine what
amount Of crcdability we should attach to
it, and it is best to let every man who
reads the following paragraph judge for
himself It will be remembered that the
late catastrophc'i South America occurred
simultaneously with the extraordinary
eclipse of the sun, which, astronomers
affirm, has not occurred before for two
thousand years, and will not occur again
| for two thousand years to come. The CAL
culations of astronomy are as accurate as
the multiplication table, and in this partic-
lar instance are confirmed by the state
ments of history. No event Of equal mag
ntudc to the late earthquake in South
America has occurred since the days of
IIcrculancum and Pompeii; but the con-
vulsion which overwhelmed those two cities
was merely local, ESQ far as is known) and
Of scarcely any extent compared to the
late catastrophe which shook the entire
continent of America, from the river Sac
ramento to Cape Horn, which must have
been felt with thousand time more ter
rife force out in the wide Pacific. 1t must
be borne in mind that gcologists affirm
that the crust of the earth in that quarter
of the globe is much thinner than at 9TH
ers, and some of them even so so far az to
say that the bed of the Pacific is furme of
submerged continent. At all events, the
great majority of the islands Of the Pacific
Archipelago are of violent formation, and
navigators have been known to discover
islands in those latitndcs which they knew
from previous experience not to have cx-
istel some years before. 1t is now an CO.
tablishcd fact that the entire centre of the
earth is filed with boiling ocean of liquid
fire, which horrible and enormous mass is
liable to the same changes of ebb and flow
as the mighty mass of waters on the oVt-
side crust Of our globe. This horrible res
crvoir has been described by Sir Charles
Lyel and other profound thinkers as the
great furnace of nature, wherein are smell
ted all the metal-gold, silver, lead, iron,
platena, tc.,-and which arc afterwards
pushed up to the surface by the volcanic
action of the scethins ocean beneath. 1t
is here also, that arc produced tho bcauti-
full diamond and crystalixed stone, for it is
now known that they owe the form and
brilliancy they possess simply to the fact
that they have boon exposed to the high
temperature which exists in the centre Of
the earth. We could make diamonds out
Of charcoal, could we reach the proper de-
gree ofheat; but that, perhaps, will never be
reached by any artificial means at the CON-
mand of man. As we said above, the
ocean of liquid fire is subject to tidal mo-
ton, and II is to this fact must be attSibu-
ted the fearful events that have desdated
South America. The eclipse in the East
Indies, whore tho sun and moon are in d.
rect conjunction, must have created .
stronger tidal current than has existed for
two thousand years; and this current rush
ing back with accelerated velocity, shook
the crust of the earth in the Western Hem.
isphere Gust - wave Of the ocean would
shake the sides of an old vessel, and vom-
tied up to the surface the seething masses
of matter which had been agitated in its
bosom for thousands Of years. These
masses, on coming in contact with lower
temperature, instantly crystalised just as
water crystalises into ice in Winter time.
The captain Of vessel, trading between
San Francisco and Valparaiso, describes
what he witnessed in the Pacific ocean, but
in what latitude he keeps secret to him
SELF This captain has, or rather had,
brother boading in house on North Fourth
street, and il II letter which he wrots to
his brother that has given occasion to the
rumors that are whispered about in that
quarter Of the city. The substance ofthe
letter, a. it has reached W, is mainly a.
follows:
"when nearly half way on the voyage,
aud At the time the earthquake took place,
fearful phenomena presented itself The
ocean became convulScd to its mightiest
denths and terrible wave was swept along