Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-10-21
Some Awful Ca|amitieS
HAVE
Visited the Earth.

with great dikes, and science says
that Holland, Belgium, Denmark and
all the southern coast of the Baltic are
sinking steadily. The entire CONT
nent of Atlantic has gone down under
the waves-why should not other con-
tinents follow?
To balance these depressions, some
spots are rising. About one half of
the Pacific islands are being elevated.
So are the West Indies, the west coast
of South America and Spltzenbergen.
The entire series of Japanese islands
rose from the waves in comparative
ly short time.
Schoolboys will look you in the eye
and say that the earth is a solid mass
with a molten interior and a solid
crust. Scientists are not so confident.
Most of them think it is as the boys
say, but very few rest with that state
mem OF late the theory that the
earth is hollow, and consists of a
crust say a thousand miles thick, is
gaining ground. The hollow earth
can be constructed from the La Place
nebular hypothesis more reasonably
than can the solid earth, some say, and
the wonder is that it was not thought
out first. The hollow earth also fur
nishes the best explanations for tides,
earthquakes and volcanoes. But as
men have gone into the earth but 5000
feet, they really know nothing about
it.
And as if the earth itself did not
abound with dangers enough there are
aerolites that go hurling through
space, smashing a house or a man here
and there. Lightning and cloudbursts
add to the terrors,, so that one could
hardly pick a more dangerous planet
for a habitation.
But to come to specific instances, the
earthquake at Lisbon, November /,
1855, is one of the most terrible. Part
Of the city sunk coo feet. The sea was
driven back for moment and re-
turned in a wave 80 feet high Sixty
thousand perished in six minutes-yet
Lisbon flourishes in the same spot.
simultaneously with the Lisbon dis
aster the volcano of Kotluggia burst
out in Iceland ard the springs in Bo-
hemia were dried up, only to burst out
in waters deep with ochre. Many
towns in northern Africa were also
destroyed. The entire area was shak-
en- was six times as large as France.
Seventeen days later shock from the
same center passed undsr Boston and
,umbled the chimneys down, killed
fish in the harbcr and sent ships ashore
1t passed on through New England in
to the wilds of America. Nine hours
later a wave twenty feet high over
whelmed St. Martins in the West In
dies Had NV York been standing
with its tall buildings then the s,ory
might have been longer
In 1911, 300 miles of earth about New
Madrid, Mo, shook constantly for
months. Lakes were formed and mys-
1er.Cusly drained. Mud shot out from
.fssures as high as the Top of the trees.
These disturbances ceased suddenly at
the moment of the great earthquake
on March 26, 1912, which destroyed
Caracas, in Venezuela. Thousands of
farms now flourish in the Missouri
district and Caracas is alive again.
THE land that swings like a ham
mock" is the name given by Indians
to the territory about San Salvador,
South America. That city was utter
ly destroyed by an earthquake on
March 10, 1873, but the people had
grown alarmed and had deserted it, so
only 500 were killed. 1t fiourishes to-
day.
No century in history has been with
out severe earthquakes in Southern
Italy. Thousands have perished there.
Vesuvius adds to the danger of that
land and the town of Tore del Greco,
which lies under the mountain, may
meet the fate of Pompeli and Hercu-
laneum any day, 1t has been partially
destroyed several times.
In 1888, 100000 were killed in Gala
bria by an earthquake, but that is for
gotten. The Mediterranean has been
the center of many destructive shocks
On the day of the battle of Actium, 81