Oct. 9, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



317 



observed to be bearing down upon the devoted crowd. 

 They strove to fly, but the wave swept too rapidly 

 onwards. The whole multitude was overwhelmed in p.. 

 moment. A magnificent quay, lately built at a great 

 expense, was engulfed with all who had crowded ou it for 

 refuge. Numberless vessels, also, which were anchored on 

 the river and were now full of terrified people — seeking 

 on an unstable element the security which the solid earth 

 denied them — were sucked down by the tremendous 

 wave, and not a trace of them was ever afterwards 



A third shock followed, and again the river was swept 

 by a gigantic wave. So violently was the river moved 

 that vessels which had been riding at anchor in deep 

 water were flung upon the dry ground. Other shocks 

 and other inroads of the river-water followed, each 

 working fresh destruction, insomuch that many began to 

 believe that "the city of Lisbon was doomed to be en- 

 tirely swept fi'om the face of the earth." 



It would be out of place to describe here at length how 

 fire and pestilence came su 

 desolation begun by the cartl 

 rible story has been nan-a 

 remains to be mentioned giv 

 the terrible energy of the enr 



The mountains Arrabida, 

 Cintra, some of the la 



rely to complete the 



But - 



, for 



3 of 



e shaken fi-o: 



• very foundations, they opened at their summits, 

 and huge masses were flung into the neighbouring 

 valleys. Flames and smoke were emitted from the open- 

 ings. But much farther away the effects of the great 

 convulsions were experienced. It has been computed, 

 says Humboldt, that a portion of the earth's surface four 

 times greater than the whole extent of Europe was 

 simultaneously shaken. On the coasts of Sweden and 

 on the shores of the Baltic, far away across the Atlantic 

 to the Antigua Islands, at Barbadoes and Martinique, 

 and still further off in the great Canadian Lakes, the 

 movement was sensibly felt. A vast wave of inky black- 

 ness swept over the West Indian seas, rising twenty feet 

 above the level of the highest tides. In Algeria the earth 

 was as violently shaken as in Portugal, and eight leagues 

 from Morocco a village with 8,000 inhabitants was 

 swallowed up. 



Thi shocks felt at sea were so violent that captains who 

 experienced them thought their ships had stmck the solid 

 hip 120 miles to the west of St. Vincent was 



so violently si 

 perpendieulai 



Loch Lomom 

 apparent can 

 vibration of the 



e thnnvn hM a 



LUal 



l,k.L 



llI - 



;e hiiving travelled from 

 Lisbon to Scotland at the rate of twenty miles a minute ! 



It has been calculated that in Lisbon alone 60,000 

 persons perished within the brief space of six minutes. 

 But there have been other earthquakes in which even 

 this terrible destruction of life has been surpassed. In 

 1693, 100,000 persons fell victims to the gi-eat Sicilian 

 earthquake, and upwards of 300,000 persons are supposed 

 to have perished in the great earthquakes which desolated 

 Antioch in the sixth and seventh centuries. It has been 

 estimated that within the last 4,000 years five or six 

 millions of human beings have pciished through the 

 eilects of cartluiuakcs. 



It is related that in the great earthquake of 1747 all 

 the inhabitants of the town of Callao were destroyed, 

 save one. The man who escaped, standing on a fort 

 which overlooked the harbour, saw the sea retire to a 



distance and then return like a vast mountain in height. 

 " He heard a cry of Miserere rise from all parts of the 

 city," and in a moment all was silent — where the town 

 had once flourished there was a wide sea. But the same 

 wave which overwhelmed the town drove past him a 

 small boat, into which he fl.ung himself, and so was 



THE COLmiBIA TYPE-WRITER. 



By John Beowxixg. 



TYPE-WRITERS have just recently been making 

 rapid strides, and they are now within a measurable 

 distance of general adoption. 



About thirty years ago I planned and began making a 

 type-writer, and I do not suppose I was by any means 

 the first person the idea occurred to. My attention was 

 distracted from this idea by the charms of the spectro- 

 scope, and I have never returned to the subject since. 

 But I have watched the production of the various type- 

 writers with very lively interest, and used one occasion- 

 ally for several years. 



When I first adopted a type-writer I dispensed with 

 the services of a shorthand clerk ; but I soon found that 

 no type- writer could arrange books and papers for me, 

 and I therefore engaged one again. Yet I would never 

 write any amount of matter with a pen in future if I could 

 get a thoroughly-satisfactory type- writer. The Remington 

 was brought out some years since, and it has been 

 extensively adopted, and had it not been for the high 

 price, about £20, it would doubtless have been still more 

 generally used. 



Since the Remington we have had the Caligraph 

 machine, constructed on the same plan, containing some 

 improvements. 



Still more rrcentlr we have hr.d several tvpe-writers 

 of a smaller >i/e. innl ne.r,. .>- .. -Tni.-al in frice. The 

 Hall iiiaeliiur is iH r;aM>- aiiJ ,tiai,;.!, and the price i.s 

 only £S. Ss. 1 ha,ve no e.\p. rieiiee if this machine, but 

 I shnuld think that it would be ditticult to write with it 

 quickly. 



'Ife^^ 



^^ 



■'^t 



have not been able 

 sight of it, so that 

 icusively, I am not 



The Anglo-Amcriean fvie 

 to see, though I have tri,.l i 

 although it" has I.eeu ailv,r 

 sure whether it is really in ll,e market. 



The latest type-uritcr intn..lueecl, and I should think, 

 take it all round, the best, is the Columbia. In this 

 machine the type is on the rim of a small wheel. When 



• It must be remarked, liowevcr, that Sir Charles Lvell estimates 

 the number of the saved at 200, " of whom twenty-two were saved 

 on a small fragment of tlie fort of Vera Cruz, which remained as the 

 only memorial of the town after this dreadful inundation." 



