The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-04-22
EARTHQUAKES.
4 Vars Remarkable Work All Over The
WnrIa


= Vars Remarkable Work All Over The
World.
The past twelve months. like the
preceding year. has been a period OF
earthquake disturbances quite strange
10 modern times. Over almost every
part = the world there have been os
citations OF the earth's crust more OF
less fatal, though in no instance have
we to record ANYTHING so terrible a.
the frightful disasters which befell
Chios. Isehia and Brakatoa Compared
with these catastrophes. the tremors
which have dismantled the stately
.'casasn of Spain, or those which few
days ago alarmed Pontevedra and Nigo.
and awakened unpleasant recolleetions
in the minds of Lisbon. are scarcely /
worthy of mention. However. what /
this years earthquakes have lacked In
intensity they have gained in univer-
salty. They have been felt from Ii
NOR to Essex In Styra, Bosnia. Greece
and Germany there were shocks. and |
at one spot in Turkestan as many as /
ninety were counted. In Iceland there |
were volcanic eruption, which are so
closely connected with earthquakes, |
and in December. a few days earlier |
than the one now experienced, oscllla- |
tons ran across Europe from Hungary |
to Lisbon, and in other towns in Portu- |
gal. Almost coincident with these
tremors were violent earthquakes IN
various parts of New Zealand, long
series throughout Switzerland, and sew
eral of an intermittent character in
various parts of Italy, which formed a
sort of prelude to the eruption of Mount
Nesuyius in the following January. In
| Sicily and Asia Minor there were
alarms which caused serious trepida-
ton lest the story OF former years
should be repeated. Indeed, almost
/ every month up to the present date,
! there have been shocks in South Amer
| lea. in Armenia, in Algeria, in Chios,
/ in the West Indies, in Spain, at Con-
| stantinople. in New Foundland. in Cal
/ ifornia. Ischia. at Sinope, along the
| shores of the Sea of Marmora, in At
| ghanistan, al Reunion, in the United
! States. in Canada. at Massowah. at
| Aleppo and, among other places, at
the Island of Kishm, in the Persian
| Gulf, where. on the 10th of Nav, twelve
villages were destroyed, 200 people
killed and great many injured
Still it is remarkable as showing how
( little these mysterious movements are
dependent on the seasons, or-despite
| the popular delusion TO the contrary
on the condition of the weather, that
while the Autumn and early Winter of
| 1888 were notable for seismic disturb
/ ances this wear we have had scarcely a
shock to record from the middle of Sep
TENDER until now, the globe having
been generally quiescent, with the eX-
ception of a slight quivering at Chios,
and another at Salerno in the first and
second weeks of December.
The geologist has taught US how lit
tie deserving is the stable earth" of
the reputation it had earned at the
poet's hand. Were it possible to pre-
serve an accurate chronicle of every
! oscillation which is felt over every
square mile of the world, it would most
likely be found that in no single hour,
or perhaps minute, Is the mlsnamed
terra firma quite at rest. 1t is always
on the move, though it is only when
the oscillations level towns and crush
hundreds of human beings that the
event gains a prominent place in the
pages of history. Everywhere the in.
vestigator comes across evidence of vast
movements of the soil of which no note
has been preserved, though their per
manent effects have been immeasurablN
greater than those of the great earth
ouakes of Calabria, Java. South Amer
lea and Portugal.
We are too apt to estimate the inten
sity of an earth tremor by the amount o
damages which it causes to life anC
| prop rtv: whereas in fact. few modern
earthquakes have done much to altel
the surface of the ground, unless W,
accept these which sank the Rum o
Cautch, and caused the depression
around Madrid and the United States
Even now, the visible evidences of th'
Lisbon catastrophe have all but vanish
ed. and when the houses Of lschia have
been rebuilt, the written tales and the
legends of the people will alone attest
the wreck which was wrought in few
moments during the dismal Autumn
of 1888
Nature does her great works not by
cataclysms, but by the action of hel
forces through unnumbered ages. The
rain and the rivulet hew mountains on
of level plateaux; rivers fill up lake
and glaciers eXcavate them, and il
n Arizona the long-continued action o
is the Colorado and its tributaries ha:
n chiselled gorges a mile deep in The
$ | SOIlu NJ mas dGCOIi
a plished a 1.-THE of this metamorphosis
ir This, however, is simply geograph
lie er's view of the question. The studen
Is of art and the lover of the monument
/ of antiquity cannot forget the irrepara
n bic ruin which a seismic shock Nigh
Il create in land so rich in architecture
l. glories as in Andalusia. Hitherto j
at has escaped. But when we remembe
: | hot do tDx bn
c. hambra, that lovely poem in marble
h. and Arabesque. one trembles to heal
re of an earthquake so near It's stated.
lie halls and matchless courts. Malag;
may have few treasures worthy of men
ton alongside those of her sister cities
Yet even that single arch of the Moor
ish "Atarazanas" is too precious to b.
thrown down without making tn
world poorer, while Cordova. has a ca
thedral the like of which does not ex
list in Christendom. Nor, when An
dalusia is mentioned, can the English
men forget that one of its seawarC
, capes is the famous Rock of Gibraltar
This stronghold has stood many siege
and may be called on to defy man,
another vet to come. But were tn
place to be visited by any such disaste
as that which levelled Ischia and over
whelmed Lisbon, those wonderful gal
leries which attest the persistence O
our race, and the endless batterie
which render the fortress of Gebel Tari
impregnable to man, might in a minut
be annihilated. In fewer moments tha
it has taken generations to rear them
the works of ages might be effaced, an
the question of who shall hold the Ike
of the Mediterranean settled withou
the Intervention of an Internationa
Conference. London Standard
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