Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1872-04-19
The Californian Earthquake.

On fourth page will be found many
details of the late California earthquake,
which appears to have been very disas-
trous. The California papers devote
much space to the fearful earthquake in
Inyo County dwelling at length on the
various phenomena observable prior,
during and subsequent to the shocks.
The day preceding the earthquake a
high wind prevailed over the whole val
ley, but at night subsidized, and was then
succeed by perfect calm. The noise of
the shock is described as appalling. 1t
seemed, says an eye witness at Indepen-
dence, Gas if the mighty mountains
skirting the valley were breaking up ana
rolling into plains below-the sound was
in the air and under the earth, and its
reverberations through the tumbling
mountains were as terrific as the noise
itself" The first shock is also said to
have been both oscillating and vertical.
The ground heaved and vibrated, and
then, as the awful sound died in its far
off echoes, the inhabitants who had es-
capped from their crumbling houses aghast
with fright heard away to the south,
down the valley toward Lone Pine, a
sharp and laundering explosion as of a
thousand columbiads fred at once
Nearer and nearer came the appalling
noise, and as the shock advanced, thou
sands upon thousands of huge rocks
tumbled from the crags on either hand
and crashed with deaiening din into the
ravines and upon the edges of the val
ley below. Then came the noise under
their feet, and with it, the awful sick
ening and terrifying uplift and swing of
the earth.
The same eyewitness says in continu-
alton of the narrative:
The people ran to and fro, some
screamed, some prayed, others stood still
and watched the course of things with
stoical 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 con-
stantly. At short intervals would be
heard away off in the direction of Lone
Pine and the Lake that terrible boom
bang as if the very mountains them
selves were splitting in twain. Look
out, boys they would cry, here she
comes again J and come she would. But
in each instant they had time to brace
themselves for the advancing shock
Not only did tens of thousands of rocks
and boulders rolling down the mount.
aims add to the confusion of the scene,
but in the Sierras, 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 be-
low"
At every succeeding shock, we are
told, great sheets of fame could be seen
bursting from the ritted rocks in the
mountain sides on either hand, which
would coil and lap about moment and
then disappear. 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 ex-
tended from Fish Springs south as far
as the eye could reach. From the time
of the first shock till daylight the noises
and shocks were incessant.
The shocks continued the next dav.
though much feebler, and underground
noises were incessant Many of the in
habitants believed that the last great day
bad come, and all we're deeply affected
by fear. Almost numberless incidents
are related by the interior journals, and
many strange and hair-breadth escapes
are told.