EARTHQUAKES. 



267 



straits off San Pedro, was so much injured that 

 she reached port with difficulty. The follow- 

 ing is a synopsis of facts reported in the Cali- 

 fornian papers : 



At Tibbet's Eanch, 15 miles above Independence, 

 40 acres of ground sank about seven feet below the 

 surface of the surrounding country. Big Owen's 

 Lake has risen four feet since the first shock. 

 Owen's Kiver run over its bank, depositing shoals of 

 fish on shore ; afterward it receded. For a distance 

 of three or four miles through Lone Pine the earth is 

 cracked. One side remained stationary, while the 

 other sank seven or eight feet, leaving a wall of 

 earth, extending over three miles in length, where 

 formerly was a level plain. Innumerable cracks 

 were made throughout the valley. Kern and Owen's 

 Kivers turned and ran up-stream for several minutes, 

 leaving their beds dry ; finally, they returned with 

 largely-increased volumes of water. 



Some of the shocks were preceded by a deafening 

 report, as though the mountains were being rent in 

 two, while others were accompanied by a low, con- 

 tinuous rumble, as of a train of cars running under- 

 ground. None of the sufferers ever experienced any 

 thing so frightful in all their earthquake experience. 

 At the last accounts (Thursday morning), the explo- 

 sions arid heavings still continue, though not so vio- 

 lently. The most correct estimates place the number 

 of killed at less than 30, while the wounded will 

 probably foot up 100. 



The Visalia JJelta of March 28th says : " At about 

 2^ o'clock on Tuesday morning, our people were 

 frightened out of bed and propriety by the occurrence 

 of one of the most extraordinary earthquakes we 

 have ever experienced or read of, at least in some of 

 its particulars. Its duration was its most remarkable 

 feature. The waves of tremble seemed to come from 

 the southwest, and they were so near together, and 

 followed each other so unremittingly, that one gen- - 

 tleman assures us that the first shock lasted between 

 15 nnd 20 minutes 1 And he is by no means alone in 

 this estimate. He says he counted 32 distinct shocks 

 before 4 o'clock. The motion was unlike that of any 

 other we have felt. The great shakes of 1865 and 

 1868, as they visited San Francisco, consisted of a 

 sort of rotary motion, as if things under the 

 surface were being ground together as by the 

 revolution of mill-wheels; but this seemed more 

 as if some solid body were being projected against 

 the house, the effect being like a series of bumps. 

 It was ^ accompanied by a great deal of noise, 

 resembling the roar of distant cannonading, and this 

 preceded the shocks as the flash of a cannon pre- 

 cedes the sound of its discharge ; indeed, sometimes 

 the roar and rumbling would be heard, and not be 

 followed by any shock. We are most happy to say 

 that, so far as we can learn, no personal injury was 

 sustained by any one in this region. 



" Dr. Atchison, from Pottersville, called on us, and 

 thinks the rocking was more severe about his home 

 than here. He mentions that many places in the bed 

 of the Pottersville Slough were changed from dry 

 sand to wet, boggy soil ; in several instances, col- 

 umns of water were lifted in the air, and sufficient 

 raised to cover the bed of the slough, and made quite 

 a stream. Large bodies of black soil and dead-wood 

 chips were thrown to the surface from considerable 

 depths, and in the hard 'road seams were opened for 

 a hundred yards or so. 



" A series of very severe earthquake-shocks took 

 place on Tuesday morning, commencing with a heavy 

 one at 2^ o'clock, which continued with a remark- 

 ably sensible oscillating motion for a period of time 

 estimated from one to three minutes. It subsided, 

 but there were occasional vibrations until after sun- 

 rise. The second heavy shock took place at 6^ in 

 the morning, and the same motion was noticed as in 

 the first instance, though not so violent, nor as long 

 continued. Several second and third-class shakes 



occurred during the day and evening following one 

 at 2 p. M., one at 9, and another after midnight. Ac- 

 counts vary as to the duration of the vibrations. 

 Some insist that the earth was in a constant shiver 

 for four or five hours. One man said he counted 25 

 distinct shocks from its commencement until sunrise ; 

 and another says 20. So far as heard from, it was 

 much more severe than any thing of the kind which 

 has ever been known in this region. It appears to 

 have been more violent in the mountains than on the 

 plains." 



" At twenty-five minutes past 2 o'clock, Tuesday 

 morning," says, the Calaveras Chronicle, of March 

 28th, "the slumbering people of Mokelumne Hill 

 were shaken out of the arms of Morpheus by three 

 severe shocks of earthquake. The oscillations were 

 northeast and southwest, and, collectively, were at 

 least a minute in duration. The shocks followed 

 each other in quick succession, and were accompanied 

 by a low, rumbling sound, more like the mutterings 

 of distant thunder than any thing else. The shocks 

 were heavier than any that have previously visited 

 this section of the country, and created considerable 

 alarm and consternation. The most substantially 

 built stone buildings were shaken to their founda- 

 tions by the convulsions, while wooden structures 

 rocked, heaved, and cracked, as if subjected to the 

 fury of a tornado. "Windows rattled in their casings 

 as though shaken by a person in an ague-fit, and door- 

 bells were violently rung. Subsequently, about 6 

 o'clock, another shock was experienced, so slight, 

 however, that many did not notice it. So far as we 

 can learn, no particular damage was done by the 

 shake-up." 



Prof. J. D. Whitney, in a paper contributed 

 to the Overland Monthly, considers that the 

 impulse hy which the earthquake was originat- 

 ed was given somewhere nearly in the axis of 

 the Sierras, at a depth of at least 50 miles, and 

 at the same moment along a line of almost 100 

 miles north and south. The resulting waves 

 were propagated in hoth directions from this 

 mountain-axis and nearly parallel with it, and 

 advanced on the surface at a rate of from 30 

 to 35 miles a minute, if measured in a line at 

 right angles to the axis of the Sierras. 



The most destructive earthquake of the year 

 visited (April 30th) the ancient city of Antioch, 

 which had suffered from a similar cause re- 

 peatedly, previous to and during the Christian 

 era. The shock was felt all over Syria, from 

 Diarbekir to Beyrout, and from the Mediter- 

 ranean to the Euphrates. Its duration is 

 variously given at from half a minute to a 

 minute, during which time about half of An- 

 tioch was destroyed, and about 1,600 persons 

 (estimated) lost their lives. Slighter vibrations 

 continued till April llth, and, on the 10th of 

 that month, a second vigorous earthquake de- 

 stroyed seven persons. Aleppo also received 

 great injury, about forty buildings having been 

 shaken down, and seven persons killed. Ac- 

 counts differ materially as to the number of 

 fatalities attending the earthquakes at An- 

 tioch, several registrars on the spot reckoning 

 it anywhere from 250 to 1,800. The follow- 

 ing extracts from letters to English papers 

 give some of the particulars of the frightful 

 catastrophe. Rev. W. Brown Kerr, late har- 

 bor chaplain at Bombay, says : 



A severe shock of earthquake was felt here yester- 

 day, precisely at 8 A. M., English reckoning, or 



