The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1886-09-15

observations arc very difficult to obtain.
I'd. Mallcts plan by examination of the
crack i'll the land after an earthquake
and determining their points of con-
yergencc, which is also the points of
origin.
Captain Dclaunay, of tho French
Marine Artillery, maintains that the
Krakatoa out-burst resulted from the
conjunction of Jupiter and the August
swarm of metcors. He predicted violent
earthquakes in 1886 from the malevolent
influence of Saturn. Bosh)
"Sciencc," vol. ", No. 1O6, contains
the map of an earthquake occurring I'd
January, 1885, and felt in Virginia and
Maryland.
Earthquakes seem to show prefer
cncc for the night hours. Maximum 2
to 1 Il. m; minimum IL to 2 p. m.
Between 1873 and 1883, there arc re-
corded as occurring in the United States
earthquakes. OF these $50 occurred on
the Pacific slope, GG in the great valley
of the Mississippi, 147 on the Atlantic
SLOPE making an average of one in
twelve days for tho whole region, and
about one n month for the Atlantic
slope. Doubtless many lighter trcmors
for each of these might have been noted
by any one possessed of scismoscope,
an instrument devised for that purpose.
Prof. Ewing, of Toxic Japan, says of
earthquakes there: 1st. ".rhc motion of
the ground begins very gradually. I'd.
An earthquake consists of many success
sivc movements, and there is almost al
ways no single large one which stands
out prominently from the rest. 3D.. The
disturbance ends even moro gradually
than it begins. 4th. The range, the
period and the direction of movement
arc exceedingly and irrcgularly variable
during any ono earthquake. 5th. Tho
duration Of the disturbance of the ground
is rarely less than one minute and is
often several minutes. 9th. Even in
somewhat destructive earthquakes the
greatest displacement of point on the
surface of the soil is only some hun
drcdths of an inch. 7th. The vertical
motion is generally much less than the
horizontal. Sth. An earthquake exert
ing horizontal force against q mass
equal to one tlirty-third of it's weight, if
regularly repeated, is sufficient to crack
brick walls and sometimes throw down
chimncys.
The minds of the inhabitants of Garth
quake regions lose their calm cquipoisc;
| y
sends them to the street or Cathedral for
safety, SO that the earthquake records
itself in mans spiritual nature.
The Mcssrs. Darwin having under
takon some lunar observations Mt Cam
bridge with very sensitive Instruments
could not proceed with them OH account
OF the continual movements of the
Garth" 1t was never really still. 1t
Quiycrcd and throbbcd and bent under
the pendulum night and day. a situa-
tlon Mt the bottom of deep minc was
then tried, but with no better success.
1t was probably never before imagined
that when the barometer rises an inch
over n land area like that of Australia,
the increased load of air sinks the entire
continent two or thrco inches. Over q
like sea area the water surface may be
! depressed Il foot or more. The tide cx-
erciscs similar power, depressing the
shore at the flood, and allowing it to rise
ut the cbb.
Tho slight earthquake shock along the
Atlantic slope 10th August, 1884, was
fatal to several persons through nervous
excitement.
Countries where the rocky strata have
preserved their original horizontal posi-
ton as in the north of Franco, part OF
Belgium and most of Russia, arc nearly
exempt from earthquakes. While vio-
lent connections are experienced III re-
gions of highly inclined strata, especial
ly where such inclination has been re-
Gently effected, as is the Alps, Italy and
Sicily.
On the 3D. of April, 1881, in tho island
of Scio, i'll the Egcan sea, about noon,
and In less than one hour, more than
thirty villages wrecked by an earthquake,
killing 5000 people; there had been pre-
monitory trcmors during 1879 and 1880.
The earthquake of Rio Bomba, in
1907, came silently but destroyed 80
GOO people with great suddcnncss,
hundred feet high.
eruption travelled II 800 miles in twenty
hours and fifty minutes. In 1868 the
wave that destroyed Arcquipa and africa,
and ingulfed 80, 900 people, crossed the
Pacific ocean from Honolulu in twelve
hours, at the rate of four hundred and
fifty miles mn hour.
The Smithsonian Reports, 1894, con-
tains complete account of all known
concerning earthquakes, by Professor
| lockwood
Nj. Nj. ID, Montcssus writes in the
Revue Scientifquc, from Central Amer
ica: 'During my residence of four years
i'll San Salvador / have been able to
write the detailed history of 2,332 earth
quakes, l37 volcanic eruptions, 27 ruins
OF important towns, and the formation
of new volcanoes"
Professor Milne, of Toxic, Japan,
recommends as an earthquake proof
house, n one-storied strongly framed
timber house, with light, fattish roof
Of shingles or sheet iron, the whole rest
ing on quantity of small cast-iron
Tails, carried on flat plates, bedded in
the foundations. The chimneys might
be made of sheet-iron, carried through
holes free of the roof.
Earthquakes are vibrations or oscilla-
tions of the ground backwards and for
wards, due to tho passage Of waves SINH
lar 10 those produced in body of water
by throwing rock or stick into it.
These waves spread ont from the points