Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1868-11-14
A WONDERFUL PHENOMENA.
TO the editor of the St. Louis Times:

hour last night been goiniug ground in
certain quiet quarters Of the city. 1t Is
so marvellous that one could scarcely be-
lieve it TO be anything but the chimera
of a madman's brain, If it were not con
irmed by scientific facts, and by a vast
number of the theories of modern phi
losophy. 1t is difficult to determine what
amount of credibility we should attach to
it, and it is best to let every man who
reads the following paragraphs judge for
himself. 1t will be remembered that the
late catastrophe in South America oc.
CURED simultaneously with the extraor-
binary eclipse of the sun, which, astron
omers affirm. has not occurred before for
two thousand years, and will not occur
again for two thousand years to come.
The calculations of astronomy are as &C.
curate as the multiplication table. and 10
this particular instance are confirmed by
the statements of history. No event of
equal magnitude to the late earthquake
in South America has occurred since the
days of H%erculaneum and Pompeii ; but
the CONFUSION which over helmed these
two cities was merely local, so far as is
known, and of scarcely any extent com
pared to the late catastrophe, which
shook the entire continent Of America
from Sacramento to Cape Horn, and
which must have been felt with a tbous-
aud times more terrific force out in the
wide Pacific. 1t must be borne 10 mind
that geologists affirm that the crust Of
the earth in that corner of the world is
much thinner than at others, and some OF
them ever go so far as to say that the
bed of the Pacific is formed of a sub
merged continet. At all events, the
great majority of the islands of the Pa
ciic Archipelago are of volcanic formal
Ion, and navigators have been known to
discover islands in those ATTITUDES which
they knew from their previous experience
not to have existed before. 1t is now an
established fact that the entire center OF
the earth is filled with a 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 outside crust of our globe. This
horrible reservoir has been described by
Sir Charles Lyell and other profound
thinkers as the great furnace of nature,
wherein are smelted all the metals--gold,
silver, lead, iron, platina, etc.-and which
are afterwards pushed up to the surface
BY the volcanic action Of the seething
ocean beneath. 1t is here also that are
produced the beautiful diamond and crys
talized stone, for it is now known that
they owe the form aud brilliancy they
possess simply to the fact that they have
been exposed to the high temperature
which exists in the centre of the earth.
We could make diamonds out Of char.
coal, could we reach the proper degree
of heat; but that can. perhaps, never be
reached by any artificial mean at the
Command of man. As we said above,
the ocean of liquid FIRE is subject to a
tidal motion, and it is to this fact must
he attributed the fearful events that have
desolated South America. The eclipse in
the East Iodies, where the sun and moon
we're in direct conjunction, must have
created q stronger tidal current than has
existed for two thousand years !; and this
current. rushing back with accel, rated
velocity, shook the crust of the earth in
the Western hemisphere Gust as . wave
of the ocean would shake the sides of an
old vessel,) and voEited up to the sur
face the seething masses of matter which
had been sgitating n its bosom for thou
sands oil years. Thes, masses on com
ing in contact with lower temperature,
instantly crystalizec just as water crys.
talizes into ice in winter time. The cap
tain Of . vessel, trading between San
Francisco and Valparaiso. describes what
be. witnessed 10 tie Pacific Ocean, but 10
what latitude he keeps . secret to him
self. This captain has, Of rather had, .
brother boarding in . house on North
Fourth street, and it is Q letter which he
wrote to his brother that has given occa.
sion to the rumors that are whispered
about in that quarter Of the city. The
substance Of the letter, as it has reached
us. is mainly IS follows: When nearly
half way on the voyage. and at the time
the earthquake took place, .
fearful phenomenon presented itself. The
ocean became convulsed to its mightiest
depths, and q terrible wave was swept
along so high that, as the captain humor-
ously said, be thought it would have land
ed him in the city Of Quito. The seamen
were terribly frightened, but the vessel
- a L.