The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1890-04-03
A JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE.
The Terrific Bursting of Natures Gigantic
Subterranean Boiler.

The Terrific Bursting of Natures Gigantic
| Subterranean Boiler.
Around Bandai all was calm and
peaceful when the day dawned on June
| ID, saws the Cor.nhU NaqaziRe Columns
of white steam iioated dreamily in the
| cool mountain air as the inyalids re-
| paired to their early bath, and all
! around was beautiful on that bright
| summer morning when. at $50, there
| occurred an earthquake shock so
| violent as to leave no room for doubt
| that some mischief was brewing. Fif-
| teen minutes later this was followed by
| n second and Yet more severe shock.
| Another brief interval of about ten
! minutes and the earth began to heave
/ like tossing sea. rising and sinking
| SO that houses collapsed, totally
wrecked. and people were violently
| thrown down and became actually sick.
rs if at sea. As standing was infpos-
| sible they tried to crawl on all fours to
| whatever suggested shelter, but they
soon realized that all places were alike
| unsafe
| The earthquake was Immediately
| followed by an appalling and unearth-
| ly sound as OF the roar of Il thousand
| thunder-claps, blending with the shrek
| of all the steam whistles and roaring
| steam-boilerS of earth and ere the
| terrified and deafened human beings
could recall their bewildered senses
| they beheld the whole mighty cone of
| Sho-Bandaisan blow bodily into the
| air, where it oyersprcad the whole
| heavens with a vast, dense pail of ashes
/ n Lott 81, -,
| day and turning all to thick darkness.
| Ere these had time to fall back to the
| earth there poured forth dark clouds of
vapor and such sitting gases as we'll
nigh choked all living creatures. Then
| leaping tongues of Internal flames,
crimson, and purple seemed to flash
| right up to the heavens. and after ap-
| palllng earth-throes were succeeded by
| showers of red-hot ashes sulphur, and
| boiling water, accompanied by fearful
subterranean roaring and rumbling. and
| by q rushing whirlwind of hurricane
| force uprooting great trees and hurling
| them afar.
Another moment and there poured
forty floods of boiling liquid mud, which
| swept down the mountain side with
| SUCH velocity that within a period yari.
Ously estimated at from ten to fifteen
minutes the scalding torrent was rush
| ing past the village of Nagasake, on
the brink of the Nagase river, having
| travelled ten miles from the crater more
rapidly than any express train. Prob
| ably much of this fluid mud was hurled
direct through the air. as was certain
| ly the case with many hundreds of
| millions of tnps u-bicb ,ynpa blown ~,
| with the first explosion. Evidently
| the earthquake must have rent some
| subterranean tissure, through which a
great volume of waters suddenly
poured into the internal fires, generat-
| ing a stupendous volume of steam.
which must have continued to increase
| and SO become more and more com.
| pressed as volcanic fires and subter-
ranean waters continued their awful
| struggle, converting the foundations OF
| the mountain into cyclopean boiler,
which finally exploded, with the result,
million times magniied, OF the most
awful boiler explosion ever known
| above ground.
The commissions of the mountain rent
| great chasms from which uprose Jets OF
| flame, ashes, and boiling water, and
many of the wretched fuoitives were
| caught up by these awful fountains and
| hurled on high with terrific force to
| fall back to earth all blackened and
| boiled. Some of these poor corpses
were found caught on the boughs OF
| trees, scalded and mangled beyond re.
| cognition. Others were battered and
| crushed by the red-hot stones and rocks
which had been hurled from the crater
| to the clouds. and fell back to earth with
awful violence.
The eruption continued for about
two hours. By 10 Il. m. its violence
was spent, though for hours afterward
the ground trembled and quivered. as
well it might after so appalling Il fit of
| passion. But in those two hours the
whole face of thirty square miles Of
country Gin the formation of vast fan
extending TO radius of five miles
| from the central crater) was totally
| changed. Of the mountain cone thus
| suddenly transformed into steam
| boiler, there remains now only the
back-a ragged, overhanging precipice,
| rising to Il sheer height, yariously
estimated at 600 or |, 900 feet above
| bottomless crater of about a mile in
| diameter. Thence with ceaseless roar
rise dense clouds of suffocating sulphur
Gus steam, which sometimes clear off
sufficiently to allow adventurous climb
ers momentary glimpse of the seeth-
| ing mud below. Those who have
| ascended that remnant of the noun
| tain from the slope behind it, and so
| have reached the brink of that precipice,
| Ia, Ill. e Il 10,
| ton as seems scarcely to belong to this
| earth.
All that was Little Bandai now lies
outspread in a thick layer of horrid
mud. varying in depth from 10 to $50
| feet-deep enough to efface every ac-
| customed feature in the whole area
and itself partially coated with layers
of pale-gray ashes and black stones and
rocks, which seem to have been elected
to such height as not to have fallen
TO earth until the awful mud-wave had
poured itself out. 1t is now described
as a wild chaos of earth, rock, and
mud, in some places resembling the
I concrete blocks of some cyclopean
| breakwater, in others rather suggest
| inc a raging sea whose gigantic waves
have suddenly been congealed. OF all
| that made the scene SO beautiful and
! pleasant not a vestige remains-not a
blade of grass where lately the noun
tain was clothed with springy turf; not
a green leaf, not a sign of life, nothing
! but absolute desolation, with "A horrid
smell rising from stagnant sulphur
| pools.
Neat Trick of the Dear Girls.
The collection was just beginning.
! An old .rentlenan w hn sat two or three