The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-01-06

1912, at the time of our second war with
England, the town of New Madrid, Missouri,
being partly engulfsd up in the spring OF
that year. In the same year, and in the sue
cssding month, the city Of Caracas, in New
Grenada, WAS swallowed up in less than :
minute, 10000 inhabitants porishing. But
the Lisbon earthquake of 1855, was, perhaps
the most disastrous Of modern times, as in Il
some 10000 citizens and all their splendid
palaces went down into the yawning cracks
ia six minutes time. Ia Calabria, about thirty
years later, over 10000 people were SO dc
stroyed. In these instances for Thousands o.
miles the ocean disturbances were percep
tiblo, and near the grisfstricken towns The
waves of tho seS rose as high as sixty feet
One of the most noted Of these dreadful
vsitations known to history WAS that which
buried under delugs of ashes from VeSu
vius the famed cities Of Herculsneum and
Pompei, and in their ono hundred feet OIL
depth were lost to view for seventeen hun
dred years, until about ono hundred and
Hsyenty-ayO years ago well-diggsr turned
up by accident bit of statuary, which led
to the subsequent wonderful developments
since made. The latest serious one
known was that on the Island of St
Thomas, in the fall Of 1867, when scarcely
stone or brick structure escaped either
destruction or great damage. Without warn.
ing the shock came and lasted nearly two
minutes, psralyzing the town with fright and
Consideration, rs across the trembling, up.
hsaving earth, with the horribly roaring
noise, the inhabitants led far and wide, from
the raging sea, giving up all save their young
ones, their aged and their sick. Noises made
by coming earthquakes have been lkened to
those made BY heavy chains pulled about
Increasing to thunder tones. Again they
have been likened TO the rumbling Of heavy
vehicles over a distant road, or like the rush
Of wind under ground, or like far OF thun'
dor. Sometimes, however, these subterrA.
mean sounds are heard for days or weeks
without any earthquake following. As for
the origin or the nature Of these dread visi-
tors, we are not down TO this day apprissd
The old theory of the liquid neuclus and
thin crust, or in other words that the earth
interior is molten mass while its
rind is in hardening and cooling
condition, having been abandoned
since recent astronomical discoveries showed
its 6lsity, hence biologists are at sea- The
most generally accepted theory, we believe,
Is that they are a sort Of vibratory motion
propSgsted through the solid materials OF
the earth, much in the same way that sound
is propogatsd in the atmosphere. The We.
locity oltbe wave of shock is often as high as
twenty miles per minute, sometimes only
one-half that. The subject is an interesting
one, and it grows on us as we write, but how
ever interesting TO the lover of science, we
are such lover of humanity, and
moro particularly, as a resident portion of it,
of North Texas, that we are not specially
solieitous for personal inspection or obssrva-
ton, hence We hope tho peculiar sounds re-
Gently and now being heard by our friends
in tho Panhandle" will in good time cease
their disturbing ominousness. We are in this
business like the boy about the best place to
have boil, we prefer it at distance, and
about some other fellow.