The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-12
PHENOMENA.
EorthauaItcs aud Tidal waves.

The New York Tribune of this morning says:-
Later aud fuller details are every day ln-
creasing the interest with which sclentlnc gu
servers regard the recent earthquakes ana t.uai
disturbances and confirming our first impres,
sion that these convulsions OF nature Woul9
prove TO be among the most remaIkaDle .S Suu
extensive of which there is any written tecOlH,
They have been experienced at snort lnlerVals
during the last three months, and there IS no
reason TO suppose that we have yet felt
the last of them, the latest having been
followed no particular direction, and been
confined to no particular quarter of
the earth. Beginning in the middle OF, the
Pacific Ocean, they seem to have affected all Its
eastern shores and its southern and western
islands, and then. skipping the whole breadth
of the North American continent and the Allan
tic Ocean, TO have broken out in Ireland: We
NAV vet learn that the remoter countries OF
Asia have likewise been shaken. Tue hrst OF
this great series of convulsions, so far as our
intel gence now extends, occurred IN the sand
Wich Islands, eleven DAYS beo e the terrlOIe dls
aster IN Peru Violent shocks were felt in different
parts of the group from the I'd to the 9tn of
August, accompanied with heavy storms of
thunder and lightning. The western coast
of south America was devastated by
awful earthquakes from the 12th to the 10th OF
August, and at the same time the shocks were
felt again IN the Sandwich Islands. though less
severely than be ore. On the 18th there were
shocks in New Zealand. About the middle of
September shocks were felt by vessels in the
Eastern Pacific. On or about the lst of Octo-
wch Islands. In California they were felt
from the 2lst to the 25ih, with considerable
severity, and were repeated slightly up TO the
9Th of November. On the 23d of October we
hear of earthquakes in Ireland. On the 4th OF
November there was one at Vancouver Island.
TIE tidal waves which have accompanied all
the most serious of these couvulsions are pecu-
liary interesting subjects of study. 1t has been
remarked, as an evidence of the rapidity with
which they travel, that they reached the Cali
fornia coast as early as the morning OF the l4th
~ h.,pf nd a
miles IN a htte more than Ia hours; but 1T now
appears that their speed is even greater than
this, for they we're felt in the Sand *ich Islands,
nearly an equal distance, on the evening OF the
18th only four hours after the earthquake in
Peru, lasting through the night, and Obtaining
their greatest force the next morning, almost
simultaneously with their appearance on the
opposite California coast This would give
them velocity of about q thousand miles
an hour. They seem, however not to have
been driven in more than one direction at a
time. The Sandwich Islands lie northwest of
the llace of disturbance in Peru. Towards the
west and south west we have no record of tidal
phenomena earlier than the l5tn of August,
when the waters of Japan and Australia were
simultaneously agitated in the same manner.
These waves may have been either propagated
by fresh convulsons on the South American
coast, or revulsions from the Disturbances at
the Sandwich Islands. We have no Sufficient
data as yet for determining in what direction
the waves travelled, or what was their size or
their velocity We trust that the attention of
competent observers may have been drawn to
thee points, tor by meaDs of them it would be
possible 10 determine the depth of the Pacific
Ocean, the size and velocity of'waves bearing,
as is well known, a fixed ratio to the depth OF
the water.
great tidal wave fell upon Hawaii one of
the Sandwich Islands, on the 18th OF October,
destroying great many houses ard other pro-
perty. Accepting the generally received theory
that these phenomena are caused by earth
auakes, we may expect intelligence of another
great calamity about that date in some country
bordering on the Pacific, from which we have
yet received no advices. But the disturbance
NAV have arisen IN the bed of the ocean, in
which case, unless stray sailing vessel chanred
to be within reach of it, no account OF the
phenomenon may ever come TO us.