The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-04-25


We yesterday met with and inter
viewed Mr.. Frank Bell, Division Super
intendent of the Western Union Tele-
graph Company in this State, who was
at Independence, Inyo county, California,
last Tuesday morning when the great
earthquake occurred which shattered
that whole region, and which shook us
up not little in this city-300 miles
north of what would seem to have been
the centre of the great telluric dis
! turbance.
THE FIRST GREAT SHOCK
came at 2:30 on Tuesday morning, and
was probably the. most severe that oc-
Cured. Mr.. Bell, who was sleeping in
the second story of the hotel at Inde-
pendence Ia frame building filed in
with adobes), says that when the first
shock came it threw his pitcher and
wash-bowl, which were upon wash
stand six feet distant, upon his bed,
whence they rolled to the floor and were
broken. After few heavy sidewise
lurches from south to north, during
which Mr.. Bell was trying to climb out
of his second-story window, about half q
dozen perpendicular jolts came, which
seemed to lift the house to the height of
several feet. The earth now settled
down to a steady, tremulous motion,
which sort of calm lasted long enough
to allow Mr. Bell to partially dress him
self, find his overcoat and carpet-sack,
and get down stairs and out into the
open air. Here he found the startled
inmates of the hotel to the number of
twenty-five or thirty,
MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN EN- DESIIA-
BILLIE, t
all in momentary expectation OF a repe-
tition of the shocks. Frightened as all
were, one man still had sufficient COM
mand of his wits to notice Mr.. Bells
overcoat and carpet-bag. Halo :" he
cried, there is man who has packed
his duds and is going to leave the coun-
try" The joke must have been consid-
cred a good one in some quarters, for
just at the moment the earth laughed
such laugh, and so shook its sides that
nobody cared to make another attempt
at wit.
From this time till nearly 7 o'clock
the earth was never for moment per-
fectly quiet, and every few minutes
heavy shocks of few seconds duration
were occurring. In all, there were more
than fifty very heavy shocks. 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 country were thrown
down.
PERILoUs POSITION OF A CHILD.
When the first shock occurred, Mr..
Harris Of the firm of Harris & Kline,
rushed out of his dwelling with his
family. After getting out he found one
child was missing and was rushing back
to rescue it when the whole building
fell. 1t was supposed that the child
was killed, but upon cutting through
the roof and removing portion of the
wreck of the building, it was found and
rescued quite unharmed.
1t would be useless to attempt to de-
scribe the CONSERVATION which prevailed
throughout the town during the time
the shocks were occurring; many sup
posed the last great day had come. The
shocks were accompanied with a great
great clouds of dust-indeed such guam
titles of dust filled the air that cloud
was formed which was seen by persons
residing fifteen or twenty miles to the
northward.
TIE SHOCKS WERE STILL CONTINUING
when Mr.. Bell left, and the people were
so utterly demoralized that they did not
know where to turn or what to do. The
impression at Independence was that to
the southwark the earthquake was still
more severe than in that place, and fears
were entertained that but little was left
of Cerro Gordo and other mining camps
in that direction. They worked an hour
and half trying to get at Wells, Fargo
& Co. s. treasure box, buried in the ruins
of Nathan Rhines store, and at last the
stage came off without it. Even as the
stage started there came one or two rat
ting shocks. All the adobe buildings
at Fort Independence were laid low,
and child killed; the mother also, was
seriously injured.
THE INYo INDEPENDENT OFFICE,
a frame building filled in with adobes,
was not thrown down, but the office was
badly damaged-even a cooking stove
that stood in it being smashed to pieces.
STREAMS OF FIRE ISSUE FROM THE
MOUNTAIN.
Fourteen miles this side of Indepen-
dence, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains,
is large mountain called Black Rock,
the sides of which are covered with lava
and which is supposed to be an extinct
volcano. The settlers informed Mr..
Bell that during the time the shocks
were most severe, flashes of light were
seen to issue from the top of this noun
tain and streams of fire ran down its
sides.
There are on the 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 opinion that they were caused
by rocks striking 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 from the mountains
From Independence to Big Pine, a dis
tance of forty-fve miles, there is not a
square yard of ground that does not
show cracks. Near Big Pine they found
crevice across the road sixty feet wide
and six feet deep. Off the road, but in
plain sight, this crevice was two hund-