268 



EARTHQUAKES. 



shortly before 2 in the day, Turkish time. The 

 house in which I was was shaken violently to and 

 fro for four or five seconds, or, as one gentleman 

 thinks, even more. A stove weighing nearly a 

 hundred-weight was overturned ; the walls of stone 

 and plaster, with wood-work and beams, were 

 cracked, and the plaster fell on all sides. Books 

 were thrown from the cases, and a clock hurled from 

 a bracket on the wall into an arrn-chair a few feet dis- 

 tant, without breaking the glass-case or the clock- 

 works. Outside the house-walls fell, the narrow- 

 streets (only about twelve or fifteen feet wide, and 

 some less) being literally blocked up for long dis- 

 tances with the ruins of fallen houses, and a dense 

 cloud of dust arose on all sides. Men, women, and 

 children, ran hither and thither, wailing their own 

 hurts or the loss of relatives. I went down to the 

 bridge, southwest of the city, about two hours after 

 at 10 o'clock A.M. and saw many dead persons 

 brought out of the city and laid out for burial. Later, 

 I counted fifteen new graves, all close by each other. 

 Looking toward the town, ruins could be seen in all 

 directions. Several aqueducts were broken, and 

 telegraph-poles were thrown down and the wires 

 broken. The Greek Church, a strong stone-arched 

 structure, built only a few years ago, and capable of 

 holding 500 or 600 persons, was utterly ruined one 

 side and the entire roof are gone. The American 

 Protestant Church and premises are also greatly in- 

 jured, and four persons of their small community 

 , were killed, though the mission families are all safe. 

 The number of killed and injured cannot be ascer- 

 tained with any approach to accuracy, and, of course, 

 flying rumors are abundant, one man saying that he 

 thought there must be 1,000 killed, while another 

 said 500, and a third 250, which is, perhaps, within 

 the truth. The city contains from 12,000 to 15,000 

 parsons, it is said, but no accurate census exists. 

 There was time from the beginning of the first shock 

 to its close for many to escape the falling houses or 

 walls, and during its continuance two or three per- 

 sons in the house where I write walked across the 

 room and (not very quickly) down-stairs while the 

 shock lasted. Several smaller and lighter shocks 

 occurred for an hour or two afterward, but not suffi- 

 ciently strong to shake down buildings. The shocks 

 have continued at intervals through the night, and 

 another, more distinct and wave-like, was felt to 

 shake the house, with a loud, hollow, rumbling 

 noise, about 6. 30 this morning. The first shock yes- 



Av^u.Vi.^1 i-iwioc, -lA-ll.^ UUUUUVXj DUVJ-V/CCUCU, 



and then walls and buildings fell. Several minars 

 are cracked, but all yet stand, though some of the 

 arched caravansaries and baths near them are fallen, 

 The old Eoman bridge of four arches is rent in sev- 

 eral places until the water can be seen through it 

 from above ; a part of the parapet-wall has also been 

 shaken off, and the arch above the city-door at its east 

 end has been hurled down, and lies almost whole. 

 Much damage has been done to houses in the lower 

 part of the town, and many of the inhabitants are 

 now to be seen encamping around in the fields or 

 plain. 



Another letter, dated Alexandretta, April 

 9th, contains the following : 



I returned to Antioch yesterday, and came on to 

 this place, about thirty-five miles, to-day. There is 

 little harm done north of Antioch compared with the 

 south side of the valley. Alexandretta was shaken 

 but no stones fell. Beylan, in the mountain-pass 

 (Pylse Syriae), is also almost uninjured. The shocks 

 have continued in and around the south of Antioch 

 at irregular intervals at from a few minutes to two or 

 three hours. The wind has been strong to-day, and 

 I have not observed one, but yesterday two or three 

 shocks were strong enough to make the men run 

 from the walls of houses which they were pulling 



down or excavating for furniture or goods. One man 

 told me he counted forty-four shocks within twenty- 

 four hours after the first one, which I can well be- 

 lieve. They were all accompanied by a noise like 

 distant thunder or artillery, and produced a tremor 

 of the ground ; but no fresh ruin has, I believe, been 

 made by any of them except the first great shock 

 about 8 A. M. of the 3d instant. That shock, one man 

 describes, not inaptly, as shaking a house just as a 

 horse shakes himself in harness when loosed from a 

 journey, and then came a shower of stones, falling 

 walls, and roofs. Many of the houses indeed, near- 

 ly all around Suadia and around Bitias have fallen, 

 and large bowlders from the mountain knocked down 

 some few trees. < The house of Dr. Yates, used as a 

 mission-school in Suadia, is in ruins, but the inmates 

 were all saved. The house of the late Consul 

 Barker is entirely destroyed, the man who kept it 

 narrowly escaping with his life. The Protestant 

 Mission Chapel at Bitias forms a singular exception; 

 not a stone of it has fallen, though the native pas- 

 tor's house and others around were levelled to the 

 ground. " We are all safe al-hamd-u-lillah " (thanks 

 be to God), said the pastor, when I inquired for his 

 family. Not so, however, in other cases. Some 

 families have lost two or three of their numbe'r, and 

 several are dead in every village to the south as far 

 as Seleucia. 



Later accounts say that 1,600 dead bodies 

 were taken from the ruins of Antioch. 



April 16th, 17th, and 18th, violent earth- 

 quake-shocks occurred at Hasvick, Iceland, 

 destroying some houses, injuring several per- 

 sons, but killing none. 



A torrent of lava burst forth from Vesuvius, 

 on the night of April 24th, succeeding an un- 

 usual outpouring of flames and smoke, which 

 had lasted for several months. The eruption 

 on the 25th was from the side of the cone, and 

 the .lava issued so suddenly and copiously as 

 to overtake and destroy a number of persons 

 who had gathered to witness the spectacle of 

 the burning crater above. Two villages were 

 also overwhelmed, and a large tract of coun- 

 try, under cultivation, was laid desolate. The 

 flow lasted between two or three days. Dur- 

 ing the eruption, a shower of fine black dust, 

 or iron-sand, fell all about Naples and the ad- 

 jacent ^region, causing great annoyance to 

 people in the open air, who were almost suffo- 

 cated by it. The grains of sand were quite 

 uniform in size, and would pass through a 

 wire gauze, the apertures of which measured 

 tne TTnroth P art of a square inch. A shower 

 of stones, attended by an extraordinary quan- 

 tity of the iron-sand, closed up the more strik- 

 ing phenomenon of the eruption. The streets 

 of Naples were filled with the dust to the 

 depth of several inches. A correspondent of 

 the London Times writes, May 4th, as follows : 



A short distance before one reaches Kesina the 

 road turns sharp off to the left in the direction of 

 St. Ivrio, Sebastiano, and Massa, where the greatest 

 amount of damage has been done. The road was 

 still encumbered with ashes, and ton-loads were be- 

 ing swept off the roofs. Looking right and left over 

 this once fertile tract of land, I never saw a scene of 

 greater desolation. As far as the eye can search 

 every thing i| withered, and the budding promise of 

 a rich harvest is reduced to what I might have taken 

 in my hand and crumbled into dust. Tall trees, 

 poplars, and cypresses, and mulberry, instead of 

 quivering in the gentle breeze, are rigid and immov- 



