The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-22
EARTHQUAKE SEASICKNESS.
MR. BRUCE VAS IN TUMACO
 WHEN THE SEA ROSE

the Soil and WatercOurse Became a
 Ship Channel-SOundings Changed in
 the HarbOr of EsmeraIdas, Ecuadod.
 William E. Bruce, who Is the man.
 ager of the mines of the Certigue Min
 ing and Dredging Company, has just
 returned from Tumacco, small town
 of Columbia not far from the Ecuador
 border. While there he had an experi-
 ence with an earthquake which he de-
 clares was not pleasant. This earth
 quake created terror all through Col
 ombia, extended from Esmeraldas in
 Ecuador all along the Pacific coast and
 was felt as far north as Panama and in
 the interior of Bogota. For more than
 three weeks all cable communication
 with that section was broken and it is esetimated that 2,G00 lives were lost.
 MT. Bruce left here on December 23,
 to go to Tumaco, where he had to re- cord some deeds and perfect the titles to the company's mines. Tumaco is a
 small town of about 2,500 population and is on an island, or rather a sand
 bank. The inhabitants are mostly negroes, but there are eighteen to twenty English speaking people there and one is an American and is Goc- tor. The sand bank on which the town stands is very flat and at it's highest point is not more than ten feet above high tide and the street at the waters edge is feet 6 inches above the sea level. There is a fall with the tide of probably about 15 to IS feet. When the earthquake came, accompanied by tidal wave, the tide was out and the wave was more than 20 feet high. It swept for a short dis tance up the street and then the wa ter subsided.
 The first shock was felt on January 31 at 9:45 o'clock in the morning. Mir Bruce was near the waterfront. lie had felt earthquakes before, and for fun he took hold of a friend who was standing with his back to him and gave him another shake. This shock lasted two minutes and a half and was com paratively slight, but it was sufficient to scare the inhabitants, who at once left their houses and stood in terror in the street.
 "The second shock came at 10:20," said MT. Bruce, land it was very severe one. All the clocks in the town stopped at that moment. The shake lasted ten minutes and the sensation is hard to describe. It might be liken- ed to the lurching of a ship that has been caught in a sea, but the motion was much quicker. It had the effect of making many sick with a sickness similar to sea sickness. At the time of that shock I saw the tidal wave coming in and though that the place would be washed away. The wave was a monster. It lowered away up above the town, but fortunately the tide was out. The town, too, is protec- ted somewhat by reef, and this reef broke the wave. The water came on, however. There was nothing to do but wait off it, because there is no high ground there. As it approached the town the water lost its force and fin | ally ran only few feet up the streets
 With the earthquake, however l things were more serious. The ground -~sesned in several places, One crack I saw afterward was about fifteen in- ches wide and several feet deep. Hous- es fell down, They seemed to slide down, just as house built of cards would fall. More prayers were offer ed in Tuna coin that ten minutes than | eyer before in the history of the town.
 ''There is a largfe plaza in the town | back from the water and everyone | rushed there, not because it was any safer there, but to get out of the way | of the falling buildings. Some store houses and warehouses went down and | hurt people, chiefly women who had been unable to get away in time.
 The shaking lasted for ten minutes and then we set to work to help those who had been injured.
 Tn Tumaco only two were killed, a. boy and a man, but many were ihjur- | ed, and to take care of the injured and | to help those who were homeless taxed all the energies of the Englsh-speak- ing people In the place. The British Vice-Consul lives in a large house and the back of this fell down. He was helping his wife out when she fainted from fright and while the Consul was holding her up a fence fell on his leg, He was held prisoner for some min utes until another shake liberated him. He has been very lame since then. Boats that were moored along the wa ter front broke loose from their moor ings and many were lost It was a difficult task getting the people quiet after the earthquake had passed away The priest there did wonders with the inhabitants who are an ignorant and superstitious lot, and to help things he organized a religious parade in which almost everyone took part.
 "After this there were shocks every day and these got smaller and smaller until about the end February they stopped. Each day when the shock came, though, the people were panic stricken again. Some would rush to the plaza and others would jump into the water and stand there until the shock had passed over.
 The inhabitants expected another tidal wave and were sure that when it came the island would be washed away For days they kept to the plaza or other open spaces, sleeping there, and no one in the town slept without his boots and clothes on. When the shock was felt each day the natives would throw themselves on the ground on l their stomachs and scream with fright,
 We learned that the earthquake was felt for many hundred miles into the 4 Yf. |