The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-10-23

/ Volcanic Chain Of America.
| The earthquakes at San Francisco on Wednes-
day last, some twelve or thirteen in num-
Der, extended, as it appears, pretty much along
the whole coast line Of California, and back to
the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada, or snowy
mountains, which are part of the great vol
canic chain of the American Continent. Earth
quakes come from some volcanic disturbances,
and we dare say that all these volcanic per-
turbations in both hemispheres since May last
may be traced to the grand eruption of that
month Of the terrible Mauna Loa of the Sand
witch Islands, the king of all the earths vol
canoes. That eruption, we conjecture, caused
such commotion of the fiery fluids enclosed
within the thin shell of our globe that they
have been, from time to time, breaking out at
various chimneys and shaking the earth more
or less severely at various thin places ever
| since.
| It is a remarkable fact, while from the 18th
| to the 18th of August last those fearful earth
quakes came upon Ecuador and Peru, involv-
ing in ruin numerous towns and cities along
| the coast for hundreds of miles, that on the
| 18th of August the same phenomena were felt
and seen at Yokohama, in Japan, and along the
southern and eastern coast of Australia, and that
on the Goth pretty severe earthquake shook
down number of buildings at Peshawur, in
India. These almost simultaneous disturb
ances were doubtless the result of the pressure
Of the internal liquid fire from one side right
through the heart of the earth against the
| other side Of the shell. These shakes which
| they have had in California came from the
| agitation impaired to the lava which underlies
section Of our Continent. East of the Missis-
| sippi river we repose upon o thick, solid and
reliable crust. We have no volcanoes in this
| section, because we have no use for these
safety valves and escape pipes. We are all
| right But in 1911, it win be remembered by
some, there was an earthquake at New Mad
rid, on the west side of the Mississippi, from
which some forests went down and some little
lakes were created. From the west side of the
Mississippi, therefore, we may assume, the
crust of the earth to the Pacific, especially in
the valleys, is comparatively thin, and the
Europe and Asia. The Continent east from the
Mississippi is like Europe, and west like Asia.
But we have spoken of the gre at volcanic
| chain Of America. This chain of mountains
and subterranean fires extends from Cape
Horn and Terra del Fuego, or the land Of the
fire, up to Mount ST. Elias, in Alaska. Through
South America it is the backbone Of
the Continent; through Central America and
Mexico it is scattered about, but abounds in
volcanoes and earthquakes. At the southern
boundary of the United States two great chains
branch off to the northwsrd, the Rocky Noun
tains and the Sierra Nevada. The Rocky
Mountain chain is the backbone proper of
North America; but it is no longer volcanic.
II was in ages gone by, but its craters have
become extinct and are lakes. West of this
backbone chain, on the way to Great Salt
Lake, we have Fremonts Great Basin, an
isolated region Of some five hundred miles
wide and seven hundred miles long, the wat er
courses of which are lost in the sands of the
desert, or, expanding into lakes are evaporated
by the sun. This Great Basin, from the water
marks on the mountains of the rim, was at one
time an arm of the ocean or an inland sea like
the Caspian; but was at later period lifted
up by the fiery forces inside the earth and
made dry land. All this vast and inhospitable
region, with the region northward to Oregon,
was aptly described by Fremont as volcanic
region hardly yet cooled down-''a land Of
fracture and violence and fire." The numerous
hot springs in the mountains and valleys and
the volcanic chemicals of the ashy soil Of the
Plains support Fremont in this description.
On the west side of this Great Basin we have
the Sierra Nevada, or the continuation Of the
living volcanic chain from South America. II
runs along parallel with the Pacific coast, a
hundred miles or more or less, all the way to
Mount st. Elias, in Alaska. This chain has
numerous peaks, rising from twelve to seven
teen thousand feet above the sea, and two of
them, Noun. Hood, in Oregon, and Mount st.
| Hclens, further north, were reported to be
| smoking last autumn from volcanic combus-
| ton. AT all events, under this mountain chain
| in it's whole length the volcanic forces of the
earth are comparatively near the surface, and
so, for centuries TO come, perhaps, all the
countries on both sides will be liable to earth
| q,iakes. Hereafter five and six story build
ings will be rather risky business in San
Francisco at least for year or two, though
such shaking as they had on Wednesday last
may not occur again, perhaps, for fifty years
| to come
TERRORISM IN CUBA.-By our dispatches
| from Havana it will be seen that there are
some disaffected elements in Cuba not dis
posed to let the opportunity Of a revolution
in the mother country pass away without a
demonstration Of their love of barbarous IL
cense. We are not precisely informed whether
il IL. Il. A.. ALnA Of nd