The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1868-11-10

the most activity. Now it is a remarka-
BILE fact in the history of volcanoes that
there is hardly an instance of any active
volcano at any considerable distance from
the sea coast, while it is to be observed
that the favorite sporting places of earth
quakes are the regions covered by the
great volcanic cones.
Modern geography has made such pros
gress as to mark off several extensive dis.
trcts where the shocks are Simultaneous
Among these are the Atlantic districts,
that of Central Asia, and that of the Pa
cific ocean. That of the Andes, dvulged
by the late earthquake waves, is one of the
best defined. II extends more than L.
600 miles, one eighth of the circumfer-
cnce OF the globe, including great line
of volcanic cones, of which twenty.six
are now active, and nearly as many
more, though dormant at present, are liz
able to break out afresh at any moment.
All along the line earthquakes are very
common.
at has been computed says Hum,
bolt, "fhat during the earthquake of
Lisbon on November lst, 1855, a portion
of the carth's surface four times greater
than the extent of Europe was simultane
ously shaken The shock was felt in
the Alps and on the coast of Sweedcn, in
small inland lakes on the shore of the
Baltic, in Thuringia, and in the fiat
country north of Germany. The ther,
NAL springs of Topitz dried up and again
returned, inundating everything with wa
ter discolored by ochre. In the islands of
Antigua, Barbados and Martinique. in
the West Indies, where the tide usually
rises little more than two feet. it suds
denly rose above twenty feet, the water
being discoored and Of an inky blackness
The movement was also sensible in the
great lakes OF Canada and on the coast of
Massachusetts. "
In like manner, the undulations of the
same shock which last month conyulsed
the coast Of Peru, manifested themselves
in extraordinary tidal phenomena along
the shores of California, four thousand
miles distant, and in the waters that wash
the far away Sandwich Islands. These
are facts of the pro'oundest scientific in
terests, but il would be hazardous at
present 90 attempt deductions from date
yet imperfect.
In one single night, November 19tb,
lS22, the whole coast line of Chill, for
hundred miles above Valparaiso, with
the mighty chain of the Andes, was hois.
ted at one shock from two to seven feet
above its former level In 1919, in an
earthquake in India, in the district of
Clutch, bordering on the Indus, tract
OF country more than fifty miles long and
sixteen broad, was suddenly raised ten
feet above its former level. And again,
in 1923, in the convu'sion which threw
up tho Monte Nova, the whole coast of
PuzxuOli, near Naples, was raised twenty
feet above its 70 mer level, and remains
so permanently upheaved to this day.
Hundreds of similar instances are on rec-
ord, and no doubt il will ,be found in the
late convusions some parts of South Amer
ica have been raised above their former
level.
Humboldt thinks there is not n day
when the earth is not shaken by these
comotlons, that the state of perpetual
movement is the normal condition of the
surface of our globe, and il we had spa
ratus sufficiently sensitive we should doubt-
less detect the constant movement And,
indeed, already astronomers complain
that their instruments betray, by inexpli-
cable perturbations, the il stability of the
crust that supports them.
Humboldt relates that on one of those
frequent occasions while traving with
his companions in Bondland, they we're
oblidged to dsmouut from their mules and
throw themselves on the ground, the
quaking being so violent, protracted and
uninterrupted, that for more than quar-
ter of an hour they were unable to keep
their legs.