Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-01-07

and heavy swell ran through the harbor.
No buildings were thrown down by this
shock, but the walls of many were crack
ed and immense damage was done in the
fracture of window glass and crockery.
Yet this shock only lasted thirty seconds.
During the next twelve days we had nine
more. The difficulty in observing the
phenomena incident to earthquakes, owing
to their sudden and unexpected arrival,
the absence of mind, as well as absence
of body at the point of observation, has
immensely interfered with reliable data
on the subject. Different theories prevail
on the South American coast as to their
origin. Some allege that it is electricity,
in support of which proposition is the fact
that on the western coast where thunder
and lightning are unknown earthquakes
are frequent; while on the eastern coast
there are no earthquakes. and thunder
storms are severe. 1t is asserted that the
barometer falls unusually low, and that
heavy sutriness, certain stagnation per-
vades the air. Yet earthquakes have oc-
Cured in all seasons and states of the at
mosphere. The occurrence of luminous
meteors and flashes of light in the sky
about the time of the shock seem to be
pretty well authenticated in Chile as well
lied to infer that unusual electrical dis
turbance is at least consequence Of the
phenomenon; that it is the cause that has
been argued by more than one philoso-
pher. What is known are the terrible re-
suits that follow, and the direction of the
wave that can be measured automatically
as well as judged by the fallen walls. Not
to speak OF the terrible destruction on the
coast of Peru two years ago, of which
there are no detailed accounts ut hand, l
will refer to the great disaster ON the goth
of February, 1885, when the city of Con-
ception was utterly destroyed for the
fourth time. and its port, Talcahuano, ten
miles distant, swept out OF existence by a
tidal wave that came in thirty feet high
over its already desolate site.
81 visited both of these cities in 1857
and some marks of destruction were still
visible. This terrible earthquake began
without premonitory noise, the motion
gradually increasing to one terrific shock,
that in a twinkling laid the two cities in
ruins. The rumble was heard about the
middle of the shock, the total duration of
which was two and half minutes, and
the motions undulatory, vertical, horizon
tai and circular, were felt and seen in the
disposition of the fragments of buildings
strewn over the plain. There was little
loss of life. The inhabitants of Concep-
ton lived for weeks without shelter in the
greatest suffering and terror, the ground
tremulous for many hours after the main
shock, and more than three hundred dis
tinct vibrations We're felt between that and
the 4th of March, accompanied by terrible
rumblings as if heavens artillery had
opened its canonades in the bowels of the
earth.
"At Talcahuano, an hour and ten minutes
after the shock, the water receded mile,
and returned shortly In an immense un-
broken wall, and swept everything two
hundred yards inland to the hills. This
wave was followed by two others that
completed the work of devastation. The
sea rose and fell many times after this.
Several days elapsed before the tide rose
within five feet OF the usual mark, and it
was observed that the entire coast had
been thrown up two feet.
Darwin, the naturalist, who was on
this coast with Captain Fitzroy in her
Britannia Maiesty's ship Beagle, on
scientific expedition ut the time of this
great earthquake, mentions the fact that
three volcanoes-Osorno, Aconcagua and
egunia-3,2 2S9 miles north OF Osorno,
suddenly burst into eruption. He is in
clined to connect the eruption of these
volcanoes, the upheaval of the coast and
the earthquake together, as if a subter-
ranean lake of lava had simultaneously
burst forth in its accustomed outlets,
raised the entire land and incidentally
caused the earthquake. He concludes:
From the intimate and complicated man.
ner in which the elevatory and eruptiye
forces were shown to be connected DUR
ing this train of phenomena, we may
confidently come to the conclusion that
the forces which slowly and by little starts
upliit continents, and those which at sue
cessive periods pour forth volcanic matter
from open oriices, are identical. From
many reasons believe that the frequent
quakings of the earth on this line OF coast
are caused by the rending of the strata
necessarily consequent of the tension OF
the land when upraised, and their injec-
ton by huidified rock"