EAETHQUAKES ON THE PACIFIC COAST 



177 



themselves on every side, and the sidewalks and streets were 

 strewed with wreckage and debris. To add to the terror, fire 

 broke out in several places simultaneously in the midst of the 

 ruins. The damage will amount to many thousands of dollars. 

 If the earthquake had occurred earlier or later there would have 

 been numerous fires from overturned oil lamps, etc. 



Many of the finest residences in town are wrecked and not more 

 than five chimneys in the town are standing. The total loss on 

 residences is $6,000. In the country the loss w^as very serious; 

 hardly a house rests on its foundation and some of them are not 

 habitable. The losses to farmers will aggregate $10,000. Every 

 monument in the local cemetery was either broken or badly 

 twisted and thrown from position. 



There were several miraculoiis escapes from death. 



Fig. 4. — Map of Napa, Yolo, Solano and Sacramento counties : the earthquake center. 



The schoolhouses are badly vprecked; one, costing $8,000, is twisted 

 off the foundation, and the roof has caved in. The contractors 

 have been making estimates all the afternoon, and it is safe to 

 say that it will cost $75,000 to make repairs — $50,000 in town and 

 $25,000 in the vicinity. The stoppage of clocks confirms the gen- 

 eral impression that the main shock occurred at 2.50 a. m. The 

 facts seem to show that the wave traveled much nearer the sur- 

 face than in the earthquake of 1868, or even in the Napa shock 

 of last year. Every article of glass was turned upside down and 

 12 



