Year: 1872

The California Earthquake


The Scenes In 9nyO County.


From a statement by Augustus
c. Diggins, who was in Independ
ence during the terrible earthquake,
we take the following:


He describes the noise which ac-
companied the shock, as appalling.
1t seemed as if the mighty mountains
skirting the valley were breaking up
and rolling into theplains below-the
sound was in the air and under their
feet, and its reverberations through
the tumbling mountains were as
terrific as the noise itself. He says
tha first shock was a compound one,
osciIlatory and vertical. He ran
into the street, and in the clear
moonlight saw that every adobe and
brick house in the town was in
ruins. The ground heaved and vi
brated, and then as the awful sound
died in its far off echoes, those
who had escaped from their crumb-
ling dwellings, aghast, and almost
speechless with terror, hoped the
catastrophe was over. But almost
instantly, away to the South, down
in the narrow valley toward Lone
Pine, was heard a sharp and thun-
dering explosion, as if a thousand
cOlumbiads fired at once. The peo-
pie braced themselves for the shock
nearer and nearer came the ap-
palIing noise, and as the shock ad-
vanced thousands upon thousands OF
huge rocks tumbled from the crags
on either hand, and crashed with
deafening din into the ravines and
upon the edges of the valley below.
Then came the noise under their feet.
and with it the awful, sickening and
terrifying uplift and swing of the
earth. The people ran to and fro ;
some screamed, some prayed, others
stood still and watched the course OF
things with stoical indifference
They soon learned that but one Or
two persons had been killed there,
and yet none knew what the end
might be, for the earth vibrated con-
stantly. AT short intervals would
be heard away off in the direction OF
Lone Pine and the Lake that terri
BILE boom bang! as if the very
mountains themselves were splitting
in twain. Look out, boys" they
would cry, "here she comes again ~
and come she would. But in each
instance they had time TO brace
themselves for the advancing shock.
Not only did tens of thousands Of
rocks and bowIders rolling down the
mountains add to the confusion Of
the scene, but in the Sierras OH one
side Of the valley, avalanche after
avalanche of snow was sent thunder.
ing, booming, almost screaming
down from the regions of eternal
frost and ice 10 the gulfs below.


People living near Independence
at points where they could see plain.
ly the sides of the mountains on
either hand, told him that every
succeeding shock they could plainly
see in a hundred places at once as il
bursting from the rifted rocks, great
sheets of fame apparently thirty OF
fifty feet in length, and which would
coil and lap about moment and
then disappear. He says these
flames could not have been caused
by friction of rocks and bOWlders
coming down the mountains, for in
his own neighbOrhood there were
plenty of these, but no fire visible
In one place he saw an immense
ledge or drift of whitened and bro,
ken rocks forced out of the noun.
tain and fall like an immense dump
from some mining tunnel down lis
side.


When daylight came the entire
valley south of independence aud
toward Lone Pine, was filled with
smoke and dust, and in places, peo-
pie said, the fumes Of sulphur were
almost suffocating. The clouds oI
smoke extended from Fish Springs
south, as far as the eye could reach.


Numerous springs were dried up
instantly, and others broke out in
other places, while the flow OF water
from all was greatly increased. In
one little stream three or four inches
deep, the water was thrown upward
to the height of two or three feet
over foot bridges. A man bad sew.
eral RATS mOored in the river neal
Independence laden with lumber
and each one was thrown on the
banks high and dry. Mr.. Diggins
saw springs of water forced out o
the mountains where before the
rocks had been as dry as u powder
house. From the time of the first
shock till daylight, the noise anC
shocks were incesSant.


At the competitive examination
for Il cadetship at West Point, fol
the 9th Congressional District, helC