The Arizona sentinel., 1897-07-10
ANCIENT EARTHQUAKES.
C0nyuISiOns of the Earth Which Hare
 Killed Thousands.

thousand persons were buried in |
 moment in 1862, and one hundred
 thousand again in the same city
 in 1731. The earthquake at Lima
 on October 20, l646, extended tl
 Cal.ao, and eighteen thousand per
 sons perished. This conyulsion
 which spread along the coast two
 hundred leagues, began about 10:3C
 o'clock at night. The noise, the
 shock and the ruin tock place ID
 the space of only four minutes
 The day being one dedicated to St.
 Simon and St. Jude, the people oi
 Lima attributed to the agency ot those saints the fact that only
 eighteen thousand persons perished
 out of a population of fifty thou sand. Vast quantities of gold,
 silver and jewels were buried among
 the seventy-four churches and the fourteen monasteries. The public fountains were buried. the statues of the Spanish kings crushed and the streets barricaded with fallen houses. Caliao was utterly destroy ed, and even it's very shape was changed by huge heaps of sand and gravel. At the moment of the earthquake the sea rose mountain high and rolled on till it buried .the city and destroyed every thing except the two great gates. Of the five thousand inhabitants only about two hundred escaped.
 The most tremendous earthquake Of modern times, according to the
 Chicago Herald, was that of Lisbon, of November 1, 1755. The people had risen as usual that morning, and looked out upon Belem and the Tagus, the little villas among the olive groves, the orange trees, tine bull ring, the hospitals, the con- vents and the shops. In the seven- ty-fve convents and forty churches of Lisbon the bells had tinkled and the early prayer had been said. The birds were gayly singing their maths in the suburban gardens Of AIcantara and Campo Grande. The blue sky gave no omen of evil, and the river lay for mile after mile smiling in the golden sunlight. Suddenly the city fell to pieces like a children's tower of cards. Roofs crushed in, arcades gaped in two, towers fell, steeples snapped, pal aces tottered, walls were leveled. The air grew black with rising clouds of dust and was filled with the crash of ceaseless destruction. At the same time, as if the terrors of the apocalypse had broken at last on Lisbon, the sea, agitated t9 it's depths by the awful convulsion, rose and spread over the shore
 One of the quays also opened It's dark jaws and swallowed, in an instant, six hundred persons who had taken refuge on 1t. In minute or two more fresh calamities fell on the unhappy city, for, the fires being hurled down among the fallen timbers, confagrations broke out in several parts Of the city. To add to the general misery, thieves and murderers, escaping from the shattered prisons, plundered and robbed indiscriminately. One of these villains confessed to setting fire to the Indian house and an other to burning the ruins in seven places. The earthquake continued with gentle, intermitting tremors, felt even on the river, for eighteen days. The first great shock con- vulsed the earth for five thousand miles, overturned many cities and never halted in it's tremendous march till it reached Scotland. The year 1755 was very wet and rainy. The summer vas unusual- ly cool, and during the forty days preceding the earthquake the weather was clear, but not remark ably so. On the day immediately preceding the earthquake remark able gloominess prevailed, but on the morning of the fatal day the fog WAS dissipated by the sun. There was no wind nor the least agitation of the sea, and the weather was remarkably warm. This great earthquake of Lisbon, which ia 6 few minutes swallowed fifty thou sand persons, had precursor in