The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1889-05-02

was now discharging were OF the largest
size and greatest power, and dozen
more of them were discharged at inter
walls Of a few minutes. Tho promontory I
on which the Notifications had stood
was annihilated, and the waters of the
bay swept over its foundations. Soon
afterward the head of the bay seemed
madlv rushing out to sea, but quickly
surged back to fill tho chasm which
yawned at the spot where the village
had been.
Tho dense clouds were now upheaved
at such short intervals that the scene of
devastation was completely shut out
from the observers ON the hills, but every
few minutes they felt sickcning shock,
and heard q momentary and horrible
crash and hiss which seemed to fill all
the air. The instantaneous motor bombs
were tearing up the seaboard. and grind
ing it to atoms.
1t was not yet noon when the bonn.
bar>lmcnt ceased. No more puffs Of
black smoke came up from the distant
repeiier, and the vast spreading mass OF
clouds moved sc;lward, dropping down
upon st. Georges channel in rain OF
Stone dust. Then the repcllcr steamed
shorcward, ard when she was within
rec or four miles of the coast she ran
l., :. large white flag in token that her
task was ended.
This sign that the bombardmcnt had
ceased was accepted in good faith, and
as some OF the military and naval men
had carefully noted that each puff from
the repciler was accompanied by q
shock, it was considered certain that all
the bombs which had been discharged
had acted, and that, consequently, nc
further danger was to bc apprehcndcd
from them. In spite of this announce.
mcnt many Of the spectators would not
leave their position on the hills, but a
hundred or more Of curious and courage.
Gus men vCntured down into the plain.
That part of the sea coast where Caer
daft had been was a new country, about
which men wandered slowly and eau
tiously with sudden exclamations OF
anazcment and awe. There were no
longer promontories jutting out into the
sea; there were no hillocks and rocky
terraces rising inland. In vast plain,
ehaven and shorn down to a common
level of SCARED and pallid rock, there
lay an immense chasm two miles and a
half long, half mile wide, and SO deep
that sliudderinG men could stand and
look down upon the rent and riyen
rocks upon which had rested that por-
ton OF the Welsh coast Which had now
blown out to sea.
An officer of the Royal engineers stood
on the seaward edge of this yawning
abEss: then he walked over to the almost
circular body of swater which occupied
the place where the fishing village had
been, and into which the waters of the
bay had flowed. When this officer re-
turned to London lie wrote y report to
the effect that ship canal. less than an
eighth Of 4 mile long, leadin:, fro;i the
newly formed lake at the head 81: Ike
bar would make of this chasm, when
filled by tae sea, the finest and most
thoroughly protected Inland basin for
ships of all sizes on the British coast.
But before this report received due Off
cial consideration the idea had been sug-
gestcd and elaborated in a dozen news
papers
Accounts and reports Of all kinds
describing the destruction of Caerdaff,
and Of the place in which i: had stood,
filled the newspapers Of the world.
Photographs and pictures of Caerdaff as
it lad been and as it then was were pro-
duccd with marvellous rapidity, and the
earthquake bomb of the American war
syndicate was the subject of excited con-
versation in every civilized country.