Evening star., 1927-05-29
QUAKE IN REMOTE
CHINESE PROVINCE
7 ~
NioIent Tremors Believed to
J. Have Centered in Nations
Wild West.

I'd
Coast and Geodetic Survey indicate
that the terrific earthquake reported
by observatories on three continents
on Nav % occurred in the remote
Kansu Province, in the wild west
Of China.
THU civilized China may get its
first news of terrible disaster from
5he calculations of a group of scien-
fists working quietly over their charts
ite building of the survey near the
United States Capitol.
In this same area in December,
1920 occurred one of the most ap-
palling, but least advertised, calami-
ties of modern times. when an earth
quake destroyed more than 100000
lives.
q Mountains that moved in the night;
'1andslides that eddied like waterfalls
; crevasses that swallowed houses and
camel trains, and villages that were
swept under a rising sea of loose
earth, were a Few of the occurrences,
as described in bulletin of the Ma
tional Geographic Society that marked
she catastrophe of 1920, and may
have been repeated this year. For
the seismograph records show that
the earthquake of May %, 1927, was
one of the biggest quakes of recent
years.
Close Tells of Disaster.
Josef w. Hall, whose pen name is
Upton Close, who was engaged in
Relief work in the Kansu area in
1890, wrote for the National Geo
graphic Society a first-hand account
OF that earthquake which, in part.
Follows:
Though Kansu was in telegraphic
reach of the world, the details of the
disaster never came over the wires.
The native population was too stunned
and the few foreign residents were
too busy in relief work to give any
description of the dancing mountains
and vanishing valleys.
The area of destruction, 100 by 300
miles in extent. contains 10 large
cities, besides numerous villages. In
Ut is the heart of the so-called loose
country, where the soil is a mixture
of clay and powdered quartz. A mar
rover region was comprised in the
landslide district, where the loose
earth cascaded down the valleys and
buried every object in its path.
Tales as strange as any that Roman
Historians have told of Pompeii are re-
counted by visitors to the devastated
country. One Of the most dramatic
episodes of the disaster was the burial
0f Ma the Benevolent, a famous Mos.
lem fanatic, and 800 of his followers,
gust as they had met in conclave to
proclaim a holy war. The cave in
which they had gathered was sealed
by a terrific avalanche, while the
group knelt on their prayer-mats.
by some miracle, the watchman at
The entrance to the cave escaped with
his life, but the others were buried so
deeply that, despite months of digging
over an area of a mile, the Moslems
have failed to recove the bodies of
fheir leaders"
Mountain Skidded Into Valley.
"In another district Mr.. Hall and
bis party found that a whole mountain
kopped by temple had slid into a val
ley. A little beyond they found a
road bordered by poplar trees had
ridden the crest of a slide for three
quarters of a mile, without apparent
damage to the trees or even to the
birds nests in their branches. One
astonished peasant looked out of his
window in the morning to find that
high hill had moved onto the home
stead, stopping its line Of march within
o. few feet of his hut. r"'s fsS.'t
E I'm another village the only people
left alive were a couple over 20
years DID," he continues. They We're
saved from death only by the fact that
their children, displaying a strange
lack of filial piety, had sent them to
live in house on the outskirts of
the clan village which was buried by
an avalanche. The death of their
descendants was taken as evidence, by
the survivors in the neighborhood,
that Heaven had punished the family
Tor its lack Of filial respect.
LIN The Valley Of the Dead.
sThe most appalling sight of all was
the Valley OF the Dead, where seven
great slides crashed into a gap in the
hills miles long, killing every
living thing in the area except three
men and two dogs.
'tThe survivors We're carried across
the valley on the crest of the ava
ianche. caught in the cross current of
TWO slides. whilred in gigantic vor-
tex, and catapulted to the slope of an
other hill. With them went house,
orchard, and thrashing floor, and the
farmer has since placidly begun to
ill the new location to which he was
10 unceremoneously transported.
In a small town on highway two
strangers had put up at the inn on
the evening of the disaster. In the
terror and confusion that followed the
earthquake the landlord completely
forgot his TWO guests. 1t was not un-
I'll several days later that he remem-
bered them, and when. after consider
able digging their room was brought
TO light, both men were found alive
Stupefied by the shock. they knew
nothing of what happened and
imagined they had slept through an
ordinary night. The landlord, however
in spite Of remonstrances, did not
neglect to collect room rent for the
full period of their stay.
lone of the districts that suffered
most is the tableland to the north
known as the bunch-grass country.
which supplies the camel crop for