The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1884-12-13

which the wave of disturbance has
travelled has in every instance been
found to be from southwest to north
east, and the region affected has usually
had its greatest extension in the same
direction. 1t has been suggested that
the center of disturbance thus indicated
is the submarine region between the
Azores, Teneriffe, and the Cape Verd
Island-a region which has been re-
garded as the principal source of the
chief European earthquakes. In the
great Lisbon earthquake, for instance,
the wave of disturbance came from this
volcanic region in the western seas.
And it has been held by some of our
ablest vulcanologists that nearly all, If
not all, the regions of disturbance in
Southern Europe communicate with the
region under the Atlantic.
The earliest British earthquake OF
which any record has reached us is that
which, according to Wendoyer, shook
the whole of England in 974. Proba-
bly, in those days a few scattered reports
of earth throes from places tolerable far
apart would do duty as evidence of an
earthquake shaking all England. As
suredlv Wendover had not satisfactory
evidence from all parts of England; and
from what we know later earth
quakes it is probable that that of ga
was limited to a much smaller region
than this accountwould seem to suggest
In the earthquake of 1881 a heavy bel
lowing. according to one chroniclcr,
was heard throughout the length and
breadth of England, and in like man
ner the accounts of the earthquake of
1899 indicate, with similar want of pre-
cision, most probably, a disturbance
affecting the whole cOuntry-''a mickle
earth-stirring over all England" The
unscientiic observers of the day attrib
uted the late harvest of that year to the
earthquake.
A severe earthquake was felt in the
western and midland parts of England
in ITO. The valley of the river Trent
must have been very violently shaken,
for the river was dried up at Noting
ham, and so remained, according to
the chronicler, ''from morning to the
third hour of the day, insomuch that
MEME walked drye-shodde'' through
its channel. This shock may probably
have beer due to remote disturbance
of great violence, for it has been OBJ
served that when England has been
slightly shaken by the effects of dis
tant earth-shock the waters in the
rivers and lakes have often shown the
most marked effects of the disturba
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries
we're remarkably prolific in great Earth
quakes in the British Isles. Passing
over the widely felt earthquake of 1l33,
there was an earthquake of great vio-
lence in 1165. 1t was feltin the eastern
counties, and apparently belonged to
the same set of earthquakes as that
which was felt so sharply last April in
Essex. Matthew Paris tells us that in
Ely, Norfolk and Suffolk this earth
quake threw men to the ground and
rang the bells. 1t does not seem to
have fully relieved the pent-up forces
beneath the eastern counties, for only
twenty years later there occurred an
earthquake in which old Lincoln Ca
thedral was thrown down. and mucn
destruction wrought in Lincolnshire and
neighboring counties. Two years later
another violent earthquake was expert
enced in the eastern parts of England,
and many strong buildings were thrown
down. 1t seems likely that during the
next ten or twenty years we may have
similar evidence that single earth
quake is insufficient to relieve the east
ern earthquake region of England. In the
years of 12i7 and 1913 two remarkable
earthquakes occurred, one sthe east,
the other in the west of England. as
though mighty subterranean oscilla-
ton had slowly taken place, throwing
the line of disturbance over from east
to west. In the former year, according
to Matthew Paris, many buildings on
the banks of the Thames were flung to
the ground. He adds that "a few days
after, the sea became unnaturally calm,
as if the tides had ceased, and so re-
manned for about three months" But
it is very unlikely that the earthquake
had anything to do with this oceanic
anomaly. In the western earthquake
of 1913 the destruction wrought was
greater than in any modern British
earthquake. The Cathedral of st.
David's was partially destroyed; part
of the tower of Wells Cathedral was
flung down and fell through the roof;
several churches in Somersetshire were
seriously damaged, wide rents being
apparent in the walls.
But the earthquake OF September,
1878, was still more destructive. We
are told by Matthew of Westminster
that the church of st. Michael of the
Hill, outside Glastonbury, was levelled
to the ground by the violence of the
earthquake. Many other large churches
were destroyed or greatly injured.
Z Those who recognize or imagine a
connection between the earthquakes in
Great Britain and the movements oc-
curing within the volcanic region of
Southern Europe remark that during
all the time that England was thus dis
turbed, the region of which Vesuvius is
the principal outlet had been quiescent.
1t is perhaps rather convenient for the
theory of connection between British
earthquakes and the Vesuvian volcanic
region that we may recognize evidence
in favor of the theory whether disturb
ance in one region synchronizes with