Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1872-04-19

every lew minutes neaVy SHOCKS OF teW
seconds duration were occurring. In all
there were more than fifty very heavy
ahocks. The first shock cracked and threw
down many walls and buildings, but it
was the heavy succeeding shocks which
leveled everything. The brick court
house and every brick adobe house in the
town and throughout the whole country |
were thrown down.
The shocks were accompanied with |
great rumbling, and the air was filled with |
great clouds of dust- indeed, such guam |
titles of dust filed the air that cloud |
was formed which was seen by persons |
residing fifteen or twenty miles to the |
northward
Fourteen miles this side of Independ.
ence, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, is
a large mountain called Black Rock, the
sides of which are covered with lava, and
which is supposed to be an extinct v0lca
no. The settlers informed Mr.. Bell that
during the time the shocks were most Sc
verc flashes of light were seen to issue
from the top of this mountain, and
streams of fire ran down its Sides There
are on this side of the mountain three old
lava streams, but when the stage passed
along no one had yet gone to see if any
fresh flow had occurred. Mr.. Mallory,
formerly of Carson City, stated that he
observed flashes of light in other places
in the mountains, but he was of the opin-
ion that they were caused by rocks strik
ing together as they rolled down the
slopes of the peaks. In places on the
stage road there were encountered rocks
as large as two-story houses, which had
rolled down from the mountains. From
Independence to Big Pine a distance of
forty-tive miles, there is not q square yard
of ground that does not show cracks.
Near Big Pine they found a crevice across
the road sixty feet wide and six feet deep.
Off the road, but in plain sight, this crew
ice was two hundred feet wide and over
twenty feet deep, and it could be traced
long distance, running north and south,
parallel with the Sierra Nevada Noun
tains.
South of Fish Springs Slough the water
was spouted out of the ground in many
| places, and there were still to be seen large
| pools when the stage passed. Here, also,
ridges of ground from eight to ten feet in
height were raised up across the road. At
| Big Pine the heavy dining-table, with all
! it contained, was overturned, and five
shocks were experienced while the pas
sengers were eating breakfast. Between
Fish Springs and Bishop Creek, where
formerly was desert place, there now
| gushes forth stream of water large
enough to turn mill. In other places
streams and springs are turned topsy-
turvy. AT Hot Springs, while severe
shocks were felt on the surface, the men
in the mines ESQ feet deep felt nothing
of them.
Mr.. Augustus G. Diggins, of this city,
was at Independence at the time of the
earthquake. He says that on the day
preceding the earthquake, very high
winds prevailed at Independence and over
the whole of the valley, but at night it
subsidized, and the air became perfectly
calm. The first tremOr awakened him,
but before he could spring from his bed
it was demolished and fell to the floor,
the centre-table tumbled over, and the
house pitched and rocked like row boat
on rough sea. The building was a
strong frame one, and was, consequently,
not thrown down. He describes the noise
which accompanied the shock as appall-
ing. 1t seemed as if the mighty noun
tains skirting the valley were breaking up
and rolling into the plains below-the
sound was in the air and under their feet,
and its reverberations through the tumb-
ling mountains were as terrific as the
noise ITSELF He says the first shock
was compound one, oscillatOry
! L,
and, in the clear moonlight, saw that
every adobe and brick house in the town
was in ruins. The ground heaved and
vibrated, and then, as the awful sound
died in its far-ot echoes, those who had
escaped from their crumbling dwellings,
aghast, and almost speechless with terror,
hoped the catastrophe was over. But, al
most instantly, away to the south, down
the narrow valley toward Lone Pine, was
heard a sharp and laundering explosion,
as of thousand columbiads fired at once,
The people braced themselves for the
shOck-nearer and nearer came the ap-
paling noise, and, as the shock advanced,
thousands upon thousands of huge rocks
tumbled from the crags ON either hand
and crashed with deafening din into the
ravines and upon the edges of the valley
below. Then came the noise under their
feet and with it the awful, sickening and
terrifying uplift and swing of the earth.
The people ran to and fro; some scream
ed, some prayed, others stood still and
indifference. They soon learned that but
one or two persons had been killed there,
and yet none knew what the end might
be, for the earth vibrated constantly. AT
short intervals would be heard away of
in the direction of Lone Pine and the
lake that terrible BOOM bang! as if the
the very mountains themselves were split
ting in twain. Not only did tens of thou.
sands of rocks and boulders rolling down
the mountains add to the confusion of the
scene, but in the Sierra, on one side of
the valley, avalanche after avalanche OF
snow was sent laundering, booming, al
most screaming, down from the regions
of eternal frost and ice to the CULTS below
People living near Independence, at
points where they could see plainly the
sides of the mountains on either hand,
told him that at every succeeding shock
they could plainly see in hundred places
at once, bursting from the rifted rocks
great sheets of flames apparently thirty
or fifty feet in length, and which would
coil and lap about a moment and then
disappear. He says these flames could
not have been caused by friction of rocks
and powders coming down the mountain
for in his own neighborhood there were
plenty of these, but no fire visible. In
one place he saw an immense ledge OIL
drift of whitened and broken rocks forced
out of the mountains, and fall like an
immense dump from some mining tunnel
down its sides.
When daylight came the entire valley
south of Independence and toward Lone
Pine, was filled with smoke and dust, and
in places, people said, the fumes OF
sulphur were almost suffocating The
clouds of smoke extended from Fish
Springs south. as far as the eye could
reach.
Numerous springs were dried up in,
stantly, others broke out in other places,
while the flow of water from all was
greatly increased. In one little stream
three or four inches deep, the water was
thrown upward to the height of two OF
three feet over foot-bridges. A man had
several RATS moored in the river, near In
dependence, laden with lumber, and each
was thrown high and dry. Mr.. Diggings
saw springs of water forced out of the
mountains, where before the rocks had
been as dry as a powder.house. From
the time of the first shock till daylight,
the noises and shocks were incessant
At daybreak several parties and him
self took the stage and started from the