The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-04-22

with s,,ch violence that, despite our
precautions and engineering skill, they
prove greatly destructive of life Ter
rible storms at sea develop beyond the
power of any vessel to resist; cyclones
and tornadoes sweep across the land
Ieueling and uprooting everything in
their path: avalanches and snow-sldes
pour down the mountain-side, laying
it bare and burying the valleys: but
nc, one of these possesses the mystery
causes the terror or works the de-
struction of either volcanoes or earth
auakes The storms. the cyclones, ana
the ayaIanches deal with materials
which are familiar things in our daily
lives. thew are manifestations in the
extreme of forces which are constantly
about US. Neither air nor water is ever
wholly quiet, and smaller stones anu
boulders are constantly rolling down
the mountains. But the dread earth
quake shakes the very things that are
our types of unchangeableness and
solidity. It slips upon its victims
without warning, and dies away they
know not when or why. The volcano
pours from it's vent steam, dust. lava,
and often mud with almost inconceiv-
able energy, and while it gives warn
ing, it can be escaped only by prec1pl-
tate fight. If with all our modern
knowledge of natural forces, and with
the elimination of superstition, we can
not restrain feelings of mystery and
terror, we may well realize to what de-
gree these manifestations of power en-
tered into even the religions of prifni-
tive peoples.
ANCIENT RECORDS OF EARTH
QUAKES.
In the ancient records of earthquakes
we must not be surprised to find the
Supernatural element entering, nor to
have the descriptions of purely physical
happenings accompanied by moral in
terpretations. This disposition is
scarcely less active to-day. The
negroes and probably even many of the
more educated people of Martinique re-
gard their calamities as sent by God
in punishment for their moral delin-
quencies.
The first definitely recorded earth
quake is the one which in large part
oecasioned the destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah. The date given in King
James's edition of the Scriptures is
about 1900 B. c., and the events are
mentioned by profane as we'll as by
sacred writer's. Apparently, from the
Mosaic account, volcanic phenomena
were also manifested, but no known
volcano lies nearer their sites than two
hundred miles. 1t is possible that even
earlier than this we have mention of
earthquake tidal waves. in that the
Assyrian account of the flood which
swept up the valley of the Euphrates.
and which was anticipated by one
Hafiz-Adra, very much after the man
ner of Noah can best be interpreted in
this manner. AS recorded upon the
cuneiform inscriptions which have been
dug up at Nineveh, -Adra, who
dwelt near the ancient city of Surippak,
was warned by the God of the sea and
the depths, through the agency of the
hero Izdubar, to build for himself, his
family, his goods and stock, and for
living creatures in general, ship in
which they could escape the inlpend-
ing flood. Hafz-Adra did so, and when
the flood rushed in, he and his belong
ings were preserved. The episodes of
the bird sent forth and of the rain
bow appear in the Assyrian account as
well as in the Mosaic. Probably Hafiz-
Adra took warning from preliminary
shocks and built himself an ark of
safety, in which he escaped the sea-
wave.
II the Deluge of Noah be placed at
23eo-24e0 B. c., a thousand years and
more must have elapsed. according to
the chronology generally given, before
the earthquake shook Mount Sinai
when Moses received the tables of the
law; and before that other earthquake
developed rents in the ground which
swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Alb
Tram; and before third threw down
the walls of Jericho.
Earthquakes did not escape scientific
study among the ancients. Aristotle |
for example, endeavored to esta blish
classification on the basis of the nature
of the movement, whether up or down
or sidewise, whether the shocks were
single or complex. etc. His explana-
tons of causes, as we'll as those of |
other ancient writer's. are of great in |
terest, although. withal, bit amusing !
in the light of later and fuller knowl- /
edge But no people of discernment !
who lived in the Mediterranean basin |
could long be unmindful of the dy-
Ai%aiAAtS VI SSOloSS.
CHRONOLOGICAL LISTS OF
EARTHQUAKES
From the ancient time to the present
an nnbroken series of shocks has been ,
recorded by the historians and from |
the complete records of later years it |
is seen that hardly day passes with f!
out one somewhere over the world |
Several scholarly and patient investiga- !
tors have set themselves the task of
arranging these in chronological Sc |
quence, and vast erudition has been
employed to make the lists complete !
Up to 1850 between six and seven thou !
sand were listed, and as not less than |
one hundred per annum have been re- !
corded since, the number must be |
twelve or fifteen thousand to-day If |
we judge the incomplete records of /
the past by the fuller information of |
the last fifty years. we may multiply
even this total by large factor, and
we may gain some conception of the !
instability of what we from ~, h,,,,,o