Vol. Vll. No. 156. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



123 



THE JAMAICA EARTHQUAKE. 



Under the above title a paper was read at the 

 Ro;yal Geographical Society, London, in December last, 

 by Dr. Vaughan Cornish, a gentleman well known for 

 reseaifh work and writings in conne.xion with Phypical 

 Geogra[)hy, etc. 



Dr. Cornish happened to be in Jamaica in January 

 1907, at the time of the earthquaive. His paper has 

 been reprinted in the Geo'jmphlcal Journal for .March, 

 and the following is the first of one or two extracts 

 from it that may be given in the Ayricultand 

 News : — 



Oh Thui-sUay, .January 10, my wife and I arrived at 

 Kingston on our way back from a vi.sit to the Panama Canal, 

 and took up our cjuarters in the centi-e of Kingston, at the 

 Grenville Hotel, Ea.st Street. Thi.s hotel, which was built 

 in the days of slavery, was very sub.stantially constructed of 

 brick, with solid walls 14 inches in thickness for their whole 

 height of two tioDrs, viz. a ground tioor and a first tioor. The 

 roof, a .sloping one, was of wooden shingles, and in the whole 

 structure there was no chimney-stack, fires not being necessary 

 for warmth in Kingston, and the kitchen being always separate 

 from the dwellingdiouse In front, that is to say on the west 

 of the house, a row of massive brick arches formed a verandah 

 to the ground Hoor, and supported a covered wooden balcony 

 on the first floor. Our own room was a corner one on the 

 first, that is to .say the top floor, having an outside wall to the 

 .south, and another 14-inch brick wall on the west, with two 

 long French windows opening into the balcony. 



In this room my wife and I were sitting at half-past 

 three in the afternoon (jf Monday, January 14, when I lieard 

 the noise of an electric car coming from down rown, that is 

 to say from the south. The noise increased, af course, till it 

 was opposite the house, and then just as the rushing should 

 have begun to diminish, there was a sudden and alarnung 

 increase of rushing and rumbling sound, accompanied by 

 a savage tearing and rending noise. For a moment I felt no 

 shock, and did not realize the cau.se of the uproar, but my 

 wife, who w-as sitting nearer the wall, felt a tremor, and 

 realized that it was an earttujuake. The next instant the whole 

 house was rocking violently : a fissure opened horizontally near 

 the toj) of the west wall facing me, and a shov.er of brickwork 

 fell near the threshold of the door. Had ray wife liastened 

 to the door on feeling tlie shock, she \vould probably have 

 been struck down at the moment of emergence, as happened 

 in so many cases that day. A cloud of dust and mortar 

 darkened the air, and the solid 14-inch brick wall vibrated to 

 and fro, discharging a cannonade of brit'kw-ork into the room. 

 A lump of masonry struck me a numbing blow on the shin. 

 A heavy mahogany wardrobe standing behind me. but facing 

 my wife the way she stood, executed a clumsy ilance, and then 

 pitched over ; and the heavy cornice sailed over our heads 

 and struck my wife on the hip in its descent. We were 

 being bombarded both front and rear, but, even had there 

 been any direction in which safety could V)e found, we were 

 unable to fly, for the timber tioor was like quicksand lieneath 

 the feet, rising and falling, and opening and shutting, so that 

 we could see into the unceiled room below. 



Up to this point one knew tliat these occurrences nnglit 

 at any instant terminate fatally, but the really awful time 

 came when the house seemed suddenly to lose its cohesion, 

 and we both realized that in another second the floor would 

 give way and the walls fall bodily upon us. At this sui)reme 

 moment, with ab.solute sutldenness, the ijuaking floor stiffened 

 under our feet, our environment w'as instantaneously ligid and 



still, and the noise of the earthquake died away. We rushed 

 from the dark and dustdaden room into the verandah, and down 

 the steps into the sunny garden, where the earth was now 

 (luite firm beneath our feet. 



We .spent the next few days on tlie lawn by the house, 

 and on the Thursday we left Kingston for Port Antonio, on 

 the north of the island, the train being crowded with sick and 

 wounded. A week later we sailed for England. 



During our short and eventful stay in Jamaica, we had 

 been much inqjressed Ijy the generous .spirit displayed by the 

 colonists in the face of the great financial los.ses. They 

 .scrupulously retrained from exploiting the public mi.sfortune 

 for private profit. We were also much struck with the 

 kindliness which they displayed to one another under verj- 

 trying circumstances, as well as with the consideration which 

 they .show-ed towards the strangers within their gates. 



On ]\Iay 4, my wife having sutficiently recovered from 

 her injuries, we set out again for Kingston, as I wished to 

 investigate, to the best of my abilit}-, the cause and effects of 

 the earthquake, by which, and the sui).se(pient fire, twelve 

 hundred persons were killed, and a loss of aliout £2, 0()(\ 000 

 inctu-red. 



THE HAWK'S-BILL TURTLE. 



A brief account of the turtle tr.ide of the West 

 Indies, the headquarters of wdiich is at Kingston, 

 Jamaica, was given in the Ai/rieiilfural Nctcs, 

 Vol. V, p. -iOa. 



Both <ireen and Hawks-bill turtles are caught on tlie 

 coial reefs to the north of Jamaica, and are exported to 

 England in limited ipiantities. The .shell of the fxreen turtle 

 is of little value, and it is from the Hawk's-bill (Ereti/iochdyx 

 imiiiiaifd) that tortoise shell is obtained. The shell of a good 

 specimen may be worth as umch as £9. 



In Btillctiii '■'/ of the United States National 

 .Museum — ' The Natural History of the Berniuda.s,' it is 

 stated that, aiiart from their occurrence in the Caribbean 

 Seas, the above two species of turtles ai'e found on the 

 American Atlantic coast from the Carolinas to Southern 

 Brazil, and on the Pacific Coast from Southern California to 

 Peru. The places of greatest abundance are on the shoals in 

 the neighbourhood of low sandy beaches, or uniuhaliited 

 islands. 



Through the courte.sy ot Sir. Bickhani Sweet-Escott, 

 K.C.M.G., Governor of the Leeward Island.s, an interesting 

 account of the mode of living, etc., of the Hawk's-bill turtle, 

 as observed in the Seychelles Islands, by Mr. .1. Spurs, 

 a naturalist with expert knowledge of the subject, was 

 lately forwarded to the Imperial Coinnnssioner of Agriculture. 



^Ir. Sjjurs states that the Hawk's-bill does not reach 

 maturity till it is about twenty-two years olil. 



Eggs are laid by the female turtles, rm three separate 

 occasion.s, during the period from August to .January, the 

 total number of eggs for each turtle being about 400 per 

 annum. These are deposited in a hole made on a sandy 

 beach. Young turtles begin to hatch out about seven weeks 

 after the last eggs have been laid. The turtle has many 

 enenues, such as rats, land crabs, etc., on land, and sharks, 

 etc., in the sea. They make at once tor the high seas, and 

 hide as much as possible under floating sea-weed. In this 

 way only do they escape total destruction from .sharks. 

 When about five years old, the turtles return to shore, and 

 find .shelter under blocks of coral, etc. 



The turtles feed on zoophytes, nuissels, and small fisli. 



