The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1868-11-05
A WONDERFUL PHENOMENON.
The Late Earthquake Throws Up Is.
lands Of Pure Gems from the Bed
of the Pacific.

To the Editor of the st, Louis Times.
One of the most extraordinary stories
eyer read or written has since a late hour
last night has been gaming 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
madam's brain, If it were not confirmed
| by scientific facts and by vast number
of the theories of modern philosophy.
1t is difficult to determine what amount
of crediblity we should attach to 1t and
it is best to let every man who reads the
following paragraph judge for himself.
1t will be remembered that the late ca
tastrophe occurred simultaneously with
an extraordinary eclipse of the sun which
affair has not occurred before for two
thousand years, and will not occur again
for two thousand years to come.
No event of equal magnitude to the
late earthquake in South ANerica has
occurred since the days of Herculaneum
and Pompeil: but the CONFUSION which
overwhelmed those two cities was nearly
local ESQ far as is known), and OF scarcely
any extent compared to the late catastro-
phe, which shook the entire continent OF
America from the river Sacrant to Cape
Horn, and which must have been felt
with a thousand times more terrific force
out on the wide Pacific 1t must be borne
in mind that geolgists affirm that the
crust Of the earth IN that quarter OF the
globe is much thinner than at others:
and some of them even go so tar as to
say that the bed of the Pacific is formed
of a submerged continent At all events
the great majority Of the Islands of the
Pacific archipelago are of Il volcanic for
nation, and navigators have been KIN own
to discover islands in these attitudes
which they knew by previous experience
not to have existed some years. before
1t is now an established fact that the en-
tire centre of the earth is filled with
boiling ocean of liquid fire, which horri-
BILE and enormous mass is liable to the
same changes of ebb and flow as the
mighty mass of waters Oh the outside
crust of our globe This horrible reser-
voir has been described by Sir Charles
Loyle and other profound thinkers as
the great furnace OF nature wherein are
smelted all the meals gold, silver, lead
iron, platina &c. and which are after
ward pushed up to the surface b. the
volcanic action of the seething ocean
beneath. 1t is here also that are produ-
ced the beautiful diamond and crystalll-
zed stone for it is now known that they
owe the form and 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 charcoal
could we reach the proper degree of heat
but that can, perhaps. never be reached
by any artificial means at the command
of man. As we said above the ocean of
liquid power is subject to tidal motion,
and to this fact must be attributed the
fearful events that have desolatcd South
America The eclipse in the East Indies
where the sun and moon were In direct
conf junction, must have created a stronger
tidal current than has existed IN two
thousand years: and this current rush
ing back with accelerated velocity. shook
the crust of the earth Gust as the waves
of the ocean would shake the sides of an
old oaken vessel and vomited up to 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, instant
ly crystaiiZed into ice in winter time.
The captain of 2 vessel trading between
San Francisco and Nalparai o, describes
what he witnessed In the Pacific ocean
but in what latitude he keeps to himself
This captain has, or had brother board
ing ina house on North Fourth street
and it is letter which he wrote to his
brother that has given occasion to the
rumors that are whispered about In that
quarter of the city. The substance of
the letter, as it has reached us, Is nearly
as follows
When nearly half way on the voyage
and at the time the earthquake took
place a fearful phenomenon presented
itself. The ocean became convulsed to
its mightiest depths, and a terrible wave
was swept SO high that the captain hu-
morously said he thought it would have
landed him in quito. The seamen were
terribly frightened but the vessel was to
rights again in ten minutes. The affair
was a mere joke among the men, for
they fancled 1t was one of the high tidal
waves which are common In the Pacific.
They continued their voyage, but toward
midnight were alarmed by an eXtlaor
binary light which appeared in the hea
yens, and was first noticed on the larboard
side, and which the Ignorant and super
stitlous attributed to super natural
causes. The captain, who seems to
be an intelligent and courageous man,
steered his vessel right in the direction of
| the light. and just before sunrise sight
of magnificence-such as no human eye
ever rested on-met his gaze, 1t was no
less than group of islands formed OF
huge masses of diamonds of every color,
and, in some places, of the lnlrest brilian-
cy. The sailors fell into extacies, and
one man half breed from the Sandwich
Islands would haye thrown himself over
board if he had not been tied down
They sailed among the group the entire
day. and found it to consist, on rough
calculation, at from II to 20 in number !;
but the exact number, or their relative
size, there was no time to ascertain
They consist of large. white flint rocks of
crystalized shape, (some places nearly
transparent, which rise to height of
about $50 feet from the water. Thick
layers of various metals are embedded
into them, and the diamonds form thick
layers beside these latter. This In the
general formation but some of the
smaller islands are composed nearly alto
gether Of diamonds in which the emerald
prevails. There are agate, opauee, topaz
ruby and, indeed, diamonds of every hue:
but one island, which he describes as
being almost seventy miles by fifty wide
consists of an entirely pure emerald
| without any admixture Of foreign sub
stance. 1t was difficult landing on any
part of the group. At length some of
the men succeeded, but the captain
himself satisfied with what he had seen
| remained on the vessel
The men describe the interior of the
island on which they landed as consisting
| of almost entirely mud which is gradu-
ally congulating under the heat of the
sun. A curious thing was, that the
brilliants we're seen in muddy quarters of