The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-12

| hurled upon the house roofs, pore down
along the streets masses of confused
| ruin, which yet more and more, with
every hour. obstructed the way; and
as the day advanced the motion of the
! earth was more sensibly felt-the foot
| ing seemed to slide and creep-nor
] could chariot or litter be kept steady
| even on the most level ground.
The groans of the dying were broken
by wild shrieks of womens terror
now near, now distant-which, when
| heard in the utter darkness. was rem
| dered doubly appalling by the crushing
/ sense of helplessness and the uncer-
! tainty of the perils around; and clear
and distinct through all were the
mighty and various noises from the
fatal mountain; its rushing winds; its
wnirling torrents; and, from time to
time, the burst and roar of some fiery
and fierce explosion. And ever as the
winds swept bowling along the street
they bore sharp streams of burning
dust and such sickening and poisonous
vapors as took away, for the instant,
breath and consciousness, followed by
rapid revulsion of the arrested blood
and tingling sensation of agony
trembling through every nerve and
fiber of the frame.
Suddenly the place became lighted
with an intense and lurid glow. Bright
and gigantic through the darkness,
which closed around it like the walls
of hell, the mountain shone-a pile of
fire. Its summit seemed riven in two,
or rather, above its surface there
! seemed to rise two monster shapes,
| each confronting each. as demons con-
tending for a world. These were of one
deep blOod-red hue of fire, which light
ed up the whole atmosphere far and
wide: but below the neither part of the
mountain was still dark and shrouded.
save in three places, adown which
flowed. serpentine and irregular, rivers
of the molten lava. Darkly red through
the profound gloom of their banks they
flowed slowly on. as toward the devoted
city. over the broadcast there seemed
to spring a dragged and stupendous
arch, from which, as from the jaws of
hell, gushed the source of the sudden
Phlegethon. and through the stilled air
was heard the rafting of the frag-
ments of rock, hurting one upon an
other as they were borne down the fiery
Notwithstanding for one instant
the spot where they fell, and suffused
the next in the Furnished hues of the
flood along which they floated!
And meekly, softly. beautifully
dawned at last the light over the
trembling deep!-the winds were sink
ing into rest-the foam died from the
glowing azure of that delicious sea.
Around the east thin nists caught
gradually the rosy hues that heralded
the morning. Light was about to re-
sumo her reign. Yet, still, dark and
massive in the distance, lay the bro
ken fragments of the destroying cloud,
from which red streaks, burning dim
lier and more dim, betrayed the yet
rolling fires of the mountain of the
''Scorched Fields" The white walls
and cleaning columns that had adornA
ed the lovely coasts were no more.
Sullen and dull were the shores so
lately crested by the cities of Hercu-
leaneum and Pompeii. The darlings of
the deep We're snatched from her en-
brace!
How Charleston Quaked.
The year 1885 will long be remember
ed as a year of earthquakes in the
United States. Soon after 10 o'clock
on the night of Aug. 81 an earthquake
of more than ordinary intensity and
extending over a wide area took place
throughout nearly the entire portion
of the United States east of the Mis-
sisisppi river, shocks being felt from
| the Gulf>of Mexico northward as far
as London, in Ontario, and from the
Mississippi eastward as far as the At
| lantic ocean.
At Summerville, S. c., shocks were
! felt Aug. p, and on the day following
slight tremor was felt at Charles
| ton, S. G. On Aug. 81 more than two
thirds of the buildings in Charleston
| were damaged, the streets being filled
| by the debris thrown down from the
upper stories of the house. and the
| city for some days was isolated from
the outside world by the destruction
of railroads, telegraphs and bridges.
| Ten white and twenty-siX colored per-
sons were killed by falling walls and
dal., ~fe TIT, fol
number of deaths resulting from the
| earthquake up to Sept. 4 aggregating
| 3S-11 white and p colored. Al Au-
gusta, Ga, distinct shocks were felt
between 8 and IL p. m. and at Savan-
nah many shocks were experienced
while perceptible vibrations were felt
| at Atlanta, Washington, Baltimore,
! Philadelphia and in New Jersey. A
number of minor shocks. amounting in
some instances to mere vibrations, con-
| tinued at Charleston and vicinity I'M
til the latter part of November.
| Cause of Volcanic Bursts.
Dr. G. Hartwig in his book, "Vol-
| canoes and Earthquakes, gives the
| following as his views of the origin of
| volcanic eruptions:
The phenomena attending an erup-
ton can leave no doubt that below
| every active volcano a large subter-
I
| melted lava accumulates. The parti-
! sans of the theory which supposes the
| earth to consist of a central fluid mass,
with a solid shell resting upon it, at
tribute the formation of volcanoes to
| rents or assures in this crust, through
which the lava is cast forth; but the
! local development of heat by chemical
| action, or some other unknown cause,
| is quite sufficient to account for the
existence of fiery lakes imbedded in
a solid mass, and which, though insig-
| niflcant when compared with the sur
face of the globe may still be large
| enough to produce volcanic phenomena
on the grandest scale.
The cause of the reaction of such a
! reservoir against the surface of the
earth must. in all probability, be
4 sought for in the expansive force of
steam; for when water, penetrating
| through crevices or porous strata,
comes in contact with the heated sub
| terranean mass II is evident that the
| steam thus generated must press upon
| the lava, and when formed in suffi-
cient quantity, ultimately force it up
| the duct of the volcano. In other cases
we may suppose a continuous column
| of lava mixed with liquid water raised
! to a red-hot or white-hot temperature
| under the influence of pressure. A dis
| turbance of equilibrium may first
! bring on an eruption near the surface
/ by the expansion and conversion into
| gas of the entangled water, so as to
| lessen pressure.
More and more steam would then be