The morning call., 1890-04-09
DELUs1oNs ABOUT EARTHQUAKES.

George Alfred Townsend contributes to
the Cincinnati Enquirer an article on earth
quakes, of which the purpose appears to be
TO show that the only solid portions of the
continent are New England and "Tidal
New York. OF San Francisco, he observes
that it "has been greatly dwarfed by earth
quakes, and during the present generation
they have ceased to build high houses on
that coast" If Mr.. Townsend's knowledge
of the rest of the country is on a par with
his acquaintance with this city, his article
can hardly be considered a valuable contri-
button to physical ge ography.
The trouble with Eastern amateur scien-
lists is that they work with old maps, which
bound the United States on the west at the
Great American desert" They do not
quite realize that there is good deal of dry
land west of the Mississippi Hence they
fall into such egregious errors as Mr..
Townsend commits when he describes the
Allegheny Range as the backbone of the
continent. And their conception of
seiSmOlogy is so rudimentary that they re-
gard granite or gneisS formation as earth
Quake-proof. They are so madly bent on
explaining the cause Of occult phenomena
chat they are ready to embrace any theory
which seems to account for occurrences
they do not understand.
Persons of more mature knowledge are not
ashamed to confess that there are great
many things in the economy of the world
which they do not comprehend and cannot
account for. One of these is earthquakes.
A lot OF theories are afloat in the books ex-
planning why earthquakes take place, and
why they are more frequent in one place
than another. But none of them command
t,o INN 5,tr lfaF = q T.. =
easy to say that earthquakes occur more
frequently in San Salvador than in New
York because in the former State the crust
of the earth is thinner than in the latter
But is it? No one knows. Mr.. Townsend
will find, if he refreshes his memory by
reading colonial history, that earthquakes
were once quite common and even severe in
New England; traces of volcanic action
are easily detected in the Catskill Noun
tains in New York. Close upon the foot
hills of the Laurentian Range, which Mr.
Townsend, borrowing from Agassiz, de-
clares to be the oldest land ON this CONT
nent, a range consisting wholly of primeval
granite, there is an island called Les
EbOulements which, as its name indicates,
was created by an earthquake after the
French occul alton of Canada. Further
west, in 1872, the Mississippi Valley was
rayaged by earthquakes for weeks together.
In fact. there is no portion of the continent
which has not at some time or other been
shaken more or less violently by the force
which dwells in the heart Of the earth.
Philosophers who are not satisfied with
the barren results at which observers like
Robert Mallet and others have arrived
perhaps find a new direction for thought
in the idea that the power which creates
earthquakes is gradually losing its vitality
Ancient history contains records of earth
| quakes more frequent and more destructive
than any which now occur. They de-
populated whole districts and DESTROYED
towns by the dozen. No such disasters
have happened in recent years. The loss
of life by the earthquake at africa in 1868
by the earthquake in Spain two or three
years ago and by last years earthquake in
Japan was comparatively quite small. The
same gradual decay in the power of earth
| quakes is observed in this State. When
the Spaniards marched from San Diego to
! found the city which became San Francisco
! they we're much troubled by earthquakes,
which, in what is now the county of San
| Luis Obispo, rendered it difficult for the
| troopers to maintain their footing. We sell
dom now hear of an earthquake in Califor-
| MIA which is perceived by person standing
! in the open air; they are rarely detected by
one who is not sitting in house and oh.
! servant of the rafting Of windows. 1t looks
! as though the earthquake force was DYING
| out as the work OF creation draws to a close