The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1886-09-16


nate, 1st. by estimates based on pro
else, delicate observations, determining
II series Of points i'll which the oscilla.
tiOns arc folt at the same moment. Sucl,
observations are very difficult to obtain.
I'd. Mallct's plan by examination Of the
crack i'll the land after an earthquake
and determining their points of con-
vcrgcncc, which is also tho points of
origin.
Captain Dclaunay, of the French
Marine Artillery, maintains that the
Krakatoa out-burst resulted from the
conjunction Of Jupiter and tho August
swarm of mctcors. lie predicted violent
earthquakes il 1856 from the malcvolcnt
influence of Saturn. Dosh)
Science" vol. ", No. 10G, contains
the map OF an earthquake occurring I'd
January, 1885, and felt in Virginia and
| Maryland.
Earthquakes seem to show a prefer
cnco for the night hours Maximum 2
to a. M; minimum II to 2 D. m.
Between 1873 and 1883, there arc re-
corded as occurring in tho United States
and Canada, not including Alaska, 3GI
earthquakes. OF these $50 occurred on
the Pncific slope, GG in tho great valley
OF the Mississippi, 147 on tho Atlantic
Slope, making an average of ono in
twelve days for the whole region, and
about one y month for the Atlantic
| slope, Doubtless many lighter trcmors
fer each Of these might have been noted
by any one possessed of seismoscoDc.
an instrument devised for that purpose.
Prof. Ewing, of Toxic, Japan, says of
earthquakes there: 1st. ''Tho motion of
the ground begins very gradually. 3D.
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. Tho range, the
period and the direction Of movement
arc exceedingly and irrcgularly variable
during any one earthquake. 5th. The
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 mass
equal to one thirty third Of its weight, if
regularly repeated, is sufficient to crack
| brick walls and sometimes throw down
chimncys.
The minds Of the inhabitants of earth
quake regions lose their calm cQuipoisc:
they become nervous, and the first shock
| sends them to the street or Cathedral for
safety, so that the earthquake records
itself III mans spiritual nature.
The McsSrs. Darwin having under
taken some lunar observations at Cam
| lNIIfir In
could not proceed with them on account
OF the ''continual movements of the
earth. 1t was never really still, 1T
quiNcrcd and throbbcd and bent under
the pendulum night and day. \ situa
ton at the bottom of dcop mine was
then tried, but with no better success
1t was probably never before imagined
that when the barometer rises an inch
over land area like that of Australia,
the increased load Of air sinks the entire
continent two or three inches. Over a
ike sea area the water surface may be
depressed foot OF moro. The tide cX-
CrclScS similar power, depressing the
shore at the flood, and allowing it to rise
ut the cbb.
The slight earthquake shock along the
Atlantic slope lGth August, 1851, was
fatal to several persons through nervous
excitement.
Countries where the rocky stlata have
preserved their original horizontal posi-
ton rs i'll the north of France, part Of
Belgium and most of Russia, are nearly
exempt from earthquakes. While yi0-
lent connections arc experienced in re-
gion8 Of highly inclined strata, especial
ly where such inclination has been re-
Gently effected, rs is the Alps, Italy and
Sicily.
On tho 81 Of April, 1881, iii the island
of Scio, in the Egcan sea, about noon,
and il less than one hour, moro than
thirty villages wrecked by al earthquake,
killing 5000 people; there had been pre-
monitory trcmors during 1879 and 1880.
The earthquake Of Rio Bomba, in
iI9I, came silently but destroyed 30
600 people with great suddcnncss,
throwing some of them up cliff one
hundred feet high.
The wave caused by the Krakatoa
eruption travelled II 500 miles in twenty
hours and fifty minutes. In 1868 the
wave that destroyed ArcQuipa and africa,
ana lnGultcd 30, 900 people, crossed the
racine ocean from Honolulu in twelve
nn0curs' at the rate of four hundred and
nifty miles an hour.
Inc smithsonian Reports, 1884, con.
talns complete account of all known
concerning earthquakes, by Professor
=, NJ. NJ. ID: Montcssus writes in the
Ncvuc Scicntifiquc, from Central Amcr.
ica; "Dnrlng my rcsjdcnao of four y6oF,
III pan Salvador l have been able tc
write the detailed history of 1882 earth.
IHakcs, i3I volcanic oruptions, 27 ruins
OF important towns, and the formation
of new volcanoes"
Professor Milne, Of Toxic, Japan,
recommends as an earthquake PROC PROOF
house, n onc-storied, strongly-framed ID
timber house, with light, h0ttish ROOT
Of shingles or sheet iron, the whole rest.
ing on a quantity of small cast-iron
alls, carried on !tat plates, bcddod in
the foundations. The chinlneys might
be made Of shoet-iron, carried through
holes free Of Tic roof.
Earthquakes are vibrations or oscilla-
tions OF the ground backwards and for
wards, due to the passage of waves SINH
lar to those produced in BODY Of water