Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1881-05-05
A Remarkable Year.
FLOODS, EARTHQUAKES AND SUN SPOTS.

FLOODS, EARTHQUAKES AID SUN SPOTS.
New York Herald.
The country is just beginning to
emerge from one Of the most dis.
astrous food periods on record, the
losses occasioned by which would
defy computation. This memora>
BILE period set in on the 9th and
10Th of February, caused by two
great storm centres then passing
from the Western Gulf coast north.
waldly, bearing enormous volumes
Of tropical. sapor, which was con-
dented over the highest latitudes
of the United States, and raising
the temperature high enough to
convert the winter accumulation of
snow into rushing torrents Of water:
The Signal Service Monthly Re-
vieao, just issued, shows the inn
mense ravages OF these floods. The
rise of the Urnatilla and the Col
umbia, in eastern Oregon, alone
caused a destruction of property to
the amount of five hundred and
twenty-five thousand dollars. In
Louisiana the overflow of Lake
Podchartrain threw ten thousand
people on the mcrcies OF New Or
leans, IN the settled part of which
city probably 10000 inhabitants
were driven from their houses. The
Ohio exceeded any height it has
ever reached since tho great floods
Of 1847 and "the entire LOSSES" it
is reported, ''reached into Millions
while The Eastern rivers emptying
into the Atlantic have had their
booms. To these floods we must
add those of the Platte, in the
West. and now, last but not least,
the Missouri is rising rapidly be-
tween Deavenworth and Omaha,
as the precipitation of the last three
months gave reason to expect and
as was predicted by the Herald on
J March, IL. In the Old World
! foods and foundations have not
been wanting rs the European de-
spatches for several days past show
The Guadalquivir, swollen by tor
, rental rains in the Sierra Morena
+ Is now deluging the Iberian Pen
: insula, its usually modest and slug.
gish stream having been suddenly
converted into 4 rushing volume
five miles broad above Seville
where alone the authorities already
estimate the damage at over a mil
! lion dollars /; and it is probable tha
. with the return of spring to Centra
: Europe many such catastrophe
will occur:
The most contemporaneous oc-
, currence Of the earthquakes a
> Ischia IN March, at Chios recently
: and at Zante recently, seems to
be more than a mere coincidence
9 The abnormal rsinfalis reporte,
from our own continent and Euror
IS for some time point to an extraor
}, dinary activity in the SUN at thi
season over the equatorial belt, re
sulting in excessive evaporation G
r its heated waters: The Royal As
Economical Society, in its latest re
port, issued last month, notices til
e Increased number OF sun spo,
e observed IN the last year." What
e ever this increased solar activit
o may poltend; it appears that "
rs are entering d period Of u"usu'
= precipitation, in which the mag
netic ami meteorological forces ar
undergoing marked changes an
exerting their influence with gre;
effect not only on the atnosphel
"a but upon the more fragile parts I
~ the earth's crust In the districts Ii
=. BILE to seismic disturbances: Sell
). " mologists say that their observ,
q q tions point to the influence of cul
'u rents of terrestrial magnetism, var
w w ing with solar changes, in produe
}" ing earthquakes or determining tt
date of their occurrence. We ms
therefore, expect to hear Of more
nj these convulsions as the sun a
of vances into the Northern Hemi
he phere.