The news & observer., 1905-11-19

the centre, prOmOnitOry tremOrS had
time to get notiCeablv ahead of the
main disturbance. Tho vibrations
which threw down walls and wrecked
streets, and which must have had rela-
lively large amplitudes and long Pc
riOds. were preceded by rapid quiv-
ers of small amplitudes and period.
Eight seconds at the most measured
the pause between the successive wave
groups. Yet it was "unmistakabIe
even in the midst of a destroying
earthquake At Savannah, Ca,
seventy-fivc miles distant, the puick
vibrations we're ahead of their form
idable associates" 1t is noted that
earthquakes are of two classes, vol
canic and tectonic.
"EruptiVc outburst5 necessarily set
the earth quivering. If they fail 90 OBJ
tain vent they set it uuiverinE all
the moro violentIv.A classical instance
is afforded tho Vesuvian earthuuakc
of 63 A.D., by which Herculaneum
and Pompeii wer~ devastated sixteen
years previously to their Gntomb-
ment."
1t is mentioned by the same writer
in the Edinburgh Review" that on
the Island of Ischier there is a vol
Cano known as Mount Epomeo, and
that it sometimes is energetic for de-
struction, and then remains rcpose
for centuries. '"The volcano has
been extinct since 1902; but twice
during the nineteenth centu.. the
manacled giant in its keeping
turned in his sleep, and jOltcd
CasamiccioIa into ruins The town, a
parad;saical holiday resort was crowd
cd with visitors on July 28, 1883. Most
of them were collected. and perished.
in the theatre. Altogether the victims
numbered about 1900. and the crash
left one house standing out of many
hundreds. Yet at Naples, at distance
of only Twenty-Five miles, the soil
barely quiVered.'
He mentions, and it is certainly in
structive, that earthquakes often.
cause q rise in the land, but he says,
in reality, it is the cause of the earth
quake and not the consequence. The
coast of Chilli over a distance of 100
miles was thus elevated to the extent
of three or four feet during the for
midable CONFUSION of November Is,
1922; and the tremendous nature Of
the forces brought into play may be
judged of by the statement that the
area lifted by this single seismic effort
equalled, according to probable esti-
mate. just half that of France or lO0,-
600 square miles"
Professor Milne, an English au-
thority states that in Japan, on 2Sth
October 1891, fracture caused by
an earthquake stretched for sixty
miles across the island OF N1ppo... lie
writes that in thirty seconds
the country lost from thirty to fifty
million dollars, $3.50 people were Kill
ed and the wounded numbered ~
994; l28.750 houses. without counting
temples. factories. and other buildings
were levelled with the PLAIN, landSlldes
stripped the mountains OF their for
ests, valleys We're compressed lakes
were formed, the strongest englneef-
ing structures gave way, ana the
country was left fractured. Insured,
and e. tossed into a sea of waves:
ne various authorities are luIi IN
examples of earthquakes ana What
follows | can not here give the many
examples. But ] must cite one very
striking example gwen in the "Edlh-
purgh Review The writer says
The devastation wrought in Bengal
ana Assam, June H. 1897, was or. a
scare unsurpassed within historical
memory One millionaire tfree-puaf-
ter square miles of territory were SEN
slbly asitated by the fearful commo-
tlon; a region twice the size OF Great
Bfltah was graveIv ravaged: ana the
thtlll of its ultimate vibrations may
saIey De said to have perhneated the