Seed-dispersal 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



612 



3024. SEA, MOUNTAIN CAST INTO 



Earthquake in Hindustan. The town of 

 Chittagong, in Bengal, was violently shaken 

 by an earthquake on the 2d of April, 1762, 

 the earth opening in many places and 

 throwing up water and mud of a sulfureous 

 smell. At a place called Bardavan a large 

 river was dried up; and at Bar Charra, 

 near the sea, a tract of ground sunk down 

 and 200 people, with all their cattle, were 

 lost. It is said that sixty square miles of 

 the Chittagong coast suddenly and per- 

 manently subsided during this earthquake, 

 and that Ces-lung-Toom, one of the Mug 

 Mountains, entirely disappeared, and an- 

 other sank so low that its summit only 

 remained visible. Four hills are also de- 

 scribed as having been variously rent 

 asunder, leaving open chasms from thirty 

 to sixty feet in width. Towns which sub- 

 sided several cubits were overflowed with 

 water; among others, Deep Gong, which 

 was submerged to the depth of seven cubits. 

 Two volcanoes are said to have opened in 

 the Secta Cunda Hills. The shock was also 

 felt at Calcutta. While the Chittagong 

 coast was sinking, a corresponding rise of 

 the ground took place at the island of 

 Ramree and at Cheduba. LYELL Principles 

 of Geology, bk. ii, ch. 29, p. 494. (A., 

 1854.) 



3025. SEA-SHELLS ABOVE HIGH- 

 WATER MARK Elevation of Land in Earth- 

 quake. The most remarkable effect of this 

 earthquake [the Chilean earthquake in 

 1835] was the permanent elevation of the 

 land; it would probably be far more cor- 

 rect to speak of it as the cause. There can 

 be no doubt that the land round the Bay of 

 Concepcion was upraised two or three feet; 

 but it deserves notice that owing to the 

 wave having obliterated the old lines of 

 tidal action on the sloping sandy shores, I 

 could discover no evidence of this fact, ex- 

 cept in the united testimony of the inhabit- 

 ants, that one little rocky shoal, now ex- 

 posed, was formerly covered with water. At 

 the island of S. Maria (about thirty miles 

 distant) the elevation was greater; on one 

 part, Captain Fitz Roy found beds of putrid 

 mussel-shells still adhering to the rocks, ten 

 feet above high- water mark: the inhabit- 

 ants had formerly dived at low-water spring- 

 tides for these shells. The elevation of this 

 province is particularly interesting from its 

 having been the theater of several other vio- 

 lent earthquakes, and from the vast numbers 

 of sea-shells scattered over the land, up to a 

 height of certainly 600, and, I believe, of 

 1,000 feet. At Valparaiso, as I have re- 

 marked, similar shells are found at the 

 height of 1,300 feet: it is hardly possible to 

 doubt that this great elevation has been ef- 

 fected by successive small uprisings, such 

 as that which accompanied or caused the 

 earthquake of this year, and likewise by an 

 insensibly slow rise, which is certainly in 



progress on some parts of this coast. DAB- 

 WIN Naturalist's Voyage around the World, 

 ch. 14, p. 310. (A., 1898.) 



3026. SEA -WAVES UPON THE 

 LAND Earthquake Piling up Waters Ships 

 Driven Inland. At the earthquake in St. 

 Thomas, in 1868, it is said that the water 

 receded shortly before the first shock. Whem 

 it returned, after the second shock, it was 

 sufficient to throw the U. S. ship " Monon- 

 gahela" high and dry. Another American 

 ship, the " Wateree," was also lost in 1868 

 by being swept a quarter of a mile inland by 

 the sea-wave which inundated Arica. The 

 sea- waves of 1877 removed it still further in- 

 land. Much of the great destruction which oc- 

 curred at the time of the great Lisbon earth- 

 quake was due to a series of great sea-waves, 

 thirty to sixty feet higher than the highest 

 tide, which swamped the town. These came 

 in about an hour after the town had beem 

 shattered by the motion of the ground. The 

 first motion in the waters was their with- 

 drawal, which was sufficient to completely 

 uncover the bar at the mouth of the Tagus. 

 At Cadiz, the first wave, which was the 

 greatest, is said to have been sixty feet in 

 height. Fortunately the devastating effect 

 which this would have produced was par- 

 tially warded off by cliffs. MILNE Earth- 

 quakes, ch. 9, p. 165. (A., 1899.) 



3027. SECLUSION OF WOMEN Its 



Tendency to Refinement. The seclusion of 

 women and their always eating apart by a 

 roundabout way tended to their refinement 

 and advancement and protection. It called 

 for more services, and time in service. It 

 consumed the hours in organized and regu- 

 lated labor. It was discipline. In this 

 coterie were included frequently the chil- 

 dren and the old men. It is said that in 

 times of scarcity the women were pinched 

 with hunger first, but no one ever heard of 

 a cook starving to death. This seclusion is 

 also an evidence of the great independence 

 and self-help developed in the prisca* 

 women. MASON Woman's Share in Primi- 

 tive Culture, ch. 10, p. 235. (A., 1894.) 



3028. SECRETIVENESS TOWARD 



SUPERIORS The impulse to conceal is 

 more apt to be provoked by superiors tham 

 by equals or inferiors. How differently do 

 boys talk together when their parents are 

 not by! Servants see more of their masters' 

 characters than masters of servants'. Where 

 we conceal from our equals and familiars, 

 there is probably always a definite element 

 of prudential prevision involved. Collective 

 secrecy, mystery, enters into the emotional 

 interest of many games, and is one of the 

 elements of the importance men attach to 

 freemasonries of various sorts, being delight- 

 ful apart from any end. JAMES Psychology, 

 vol. ii, ch. 24, p. 433. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



3029. SECRET OF COMETS DIS- 

 COVERED Self-luminous Bodies Their 

 Light from Glowing Gas. The first sue- 



