Los Angeles herald., 1891-03-29
FOLLOWING THE SEA.

At the time of ''the great earthquake
of '6s," said Mr.. William
Swiddler. of Calaveras-I was at AFRICA,
Peru. have not a map by me, and am
not certain that africa is not in Chill, but
it can't make much difference; there was
earthquake all along there.
Sam Baxter was with us; think he
had gone from San Francisco to make a
railway or something. On the morning
of the quake, Sam and 1 had gone down
to the beach to bathe. We had shed our
boots and began to moult, when there
was slight tremor Of the earth, as if the
elephant who supports it was pushing
upward, or lying down and getting up
again. Next, the surges, which were
fiattening themselves upon the sand and
dragging away such trifes as they could
lay hold of, began racing out seaward, as
If they had received dispatch that some
body was not expected to live. This was
needless, for we did not expect to live.
When the sea had receded entirely out
of sight we started after it, for, it will
be remembered, we had come to bathe,
and bathing without some kind of water
is not refreshing in hot climate.
For the first four or five miles the
walking was very difficult, although the
grade was tolerably steep The ground
was soft; there were tangled forests of
seaweed, old rotten ships, rusty anchors,
human skeletons and q multitude of
things to impede the pedestrian, The
foundering sharks bit our legs as we
toiled past them, andwe were constantly
slipping down upon the fat fish strewn
about like orange peel on sidewalk.
CSz111, too, f1u1 r+uffrd his shirt 4xUnt with
such q weight of doubloons from the
wreck Of an old gallaon- that I ha.a -,
help him across all the worst places. 1t
was very dispiriting.
Presently, away on the western hori-
zon, saw the sea coming back. It oc-
CURED to me then that it did not wish it
to come back. A tidal wave is nearly
always wet, and was now good way
from home. with no means Of making
fire.
The same was true of Sam, but he did
not appear to think Of it in that way.
He stood quite still moment with his
eyes fixed on the advancing line Of
water; then turned to me, saying very
earnestly:
"Te1l you what, William, I never
wanted ship so bad from the cradle to
the gravel I would give more for
ship-more than for all the railways and
turnpikes you could scare up! I'd give
more than hundred. thousand, million
dollars! / would-Id give all I'm worth
for-just-on -little-ship!''
To show how lightly he could part
with his wealth, he lifted his shirt out
Of his trousers, unbosoming himself of
his doubloons, which tumbled about his
feet, golden storm.
BY this time the tidal wave was close
upon us. Call that wave! It was one
solid green wall of water, higher than
Niagara Falls, stretching as far as we
could see to right and left, without
break in its towering front! It was by
no means clear what we ought to do.
The moving wall showed no projections
by means of which the most daring
climber could hope to reach the top.
There was no ivy: there were no window
Lodges. Stayl-there was the lightning
rodl No, there wasn't any lightning
rod. Of course not!
Looking despairingly upward, / made
tolerably good beginning at thinking of
all the mean actions had wrought in
the flesh, when saw projecting beyond
4, - 41n oh 1>vxycv>vsit
with man sitting on it reading news
paperl Thank fortune, we were saved!
Falling upon our knees with fearful
gratitude, we got up again and ran-ran
as fast as we could, I suspect; for now
the whole forepart of the ship budged
through the water just above our heads,
and might lose its balance any moment.
If we had only brought along our um-
brellasl
shouted to the man on the bowsprit
to drop us line. He merely replied
that his correspondence was already
very onerous, and he hadn't any pen and
ink.
Then 1 told him l wanted to get
aboard. He said would find one on
the beach, about three leagues to the
southland, where the Nancy Tucker went
ashore.
At these replies I was disheartened.
II was not so much that the man with
held assistance as that he made puns.
Presently, however, he folded his news
paper, put it carefully away in his pock-
ct, went and got line and let it down
to us just as we were about to give up
the race. Sam made lunge at it and
got it.
laid hold Of his legs, the end of the
rope was passed about the capstan, and
as soon as the men on board had had q
little grog we were hauled up. can as
sure you that it was no fine experience
to go up in that way, close to the smooth,
vertical front Of water, with the whales
tumbling ont all round and above us
and the sword fishes nosing us pointedly
with vulgar curiosity.
81 e 6; S;s'