The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-01-17
HUNDREDS ARE LOST
IN A TIDAL WAVE
IA Terrible Disaster in Dutch East
Indies.
THE ISLANDS SWEPT BY THE SEA
Three Hundred People Perish on the
Island of Tana and Forty More Are
Swept to Their Death on Simalu-
The Disaster Supposed to Have Fol-
lowed a Volcanic Disturbance.

The Hague (By Cable) A tidal
wave has devastated some of the
Dutch East India Islands south of
Achin. The loss is very great. Ac~
cordng to a brief official dispatch
300 persons perished on the Island
of Tana, while 40 are known to have
been drowned at the Island of Sima-
In.
The Dutch East Indies, a name
given TO the Dutch possessions in the
Malay archipelago, has an area Of
10000 square miles and a popula-
tion of about 100000 scattered
over the numerous islands and parts
of islands. Many of the smaller
islands of the group are volcanic in
their nature and tidal waves follow
ing eruptions have frequently caused
large loss of life. A tidal wave swept
about 10000 to death from a group
of the smallest of the islands in 1883.
This disaster, like almost all others
there, followed volcanic disturbances.
II is probable that the disaster
was due TO the same cause. Vol
canic disturbances are reported from
various parts of the world. Mount
Mauna Loa in Hawaii is in eruption,
Vesuvius has recently been active,
and Mount Aetna has been belching
forth smoke These in a great meas
ure may account for the seismic dis
turbances that were reported from
Europe.
Many of the most fatal tidal waves
of which there is record have been
accompanied by earthquakes, adding
to their horrors, but making 1t i'm
possible to say whether the earth
quake or the inundation has been
the more fatal and destructive. The
great earthquake at Lisbon in 1855
was accompanied by a tidal wave
which, rolling up the Tagus River
from the ocean, submerged all the
lower parts of the city and Destroy
ed thousands of lives which might
possibly have escaped the earthquake
shocks. When the earthquake came
to Caracas in 1912 there was tidal
wave at Laguayra, the entreport of
Caracas, which destroyed many lives
In 1895 a series of tidal waves,
accompanied by or alternating with
earthquake shocks, visited some of
the most populous islands of Japan.
The tidal waves reached from Is
to 20 miles inland, being of such
height, force and volume 10 miles
from the ocean, particularly when
restricted to narrow valleys, as to be
capable of destroying much life. The
number of human lives lost at that
time has never been stated in any
English newspaper, but that it ran
far into the thousands there is no
room to doubt. Ten thousand is more
apt to be an under than an over es-
innate, such were the ravages of the
combined seismic and cataclysmic
terrors visited upon that part of the
world during nearly a week Of days
and nights of horror, which, for
tunately, come but seldom in the
experience of the race.
China has been a great sufferer
from tidal waves; many thousands
of her population have gone to death
in this way.
The last 81 eat tidal wave in this
country was that along the Texas
coast IN 1900, when the city of Gal
weston was destroyed and hundreds
of persons perished