460 
THE RECENT EARTHQUAKES 
THE earthquake record of the past week is a long and dis- 
astrous one. An earthquake of wide area and extraordinary 
intensity took place soon after ro o’clock on the night of August 
31, throughout nearly the entire portion of the United States 
east of the Mississippi, shocks being felt from the Gulf of 
Mexico northwards and from the Mississippi eastward to the 
Atlantic. The shocks were especially severe at Montgomery 
(Alabama), Cleveland (Ohio), Meadville (Pennsylvania), Raleigh 
(North Carolina), and Indianapolis (Indiana). In New York, 
Washington, Detroit, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Louisville, Chat- 
tanooga, and other places severe undulations were felt. The 
shock was light at Chicago, and west of the Mississippi at 
Omaha, Ogden, or San Francisco no disturbance was felt. The 
bounds of the disturbed area are thus roughly defined to be the 
Mississippi, the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, the Lakes and 
the St. Lawrence. Georgia and South Carolina appear to 
have been the most severely visited of all the States. At 
Augusta, in the former State, there were ten distinct shocks 
between 9.15 and 10.45 p.m., and the streets were filled with 
the terrified population. At Savannah five shocks were felt. 
Sharp shocks were also felt in New Jersey, and vibrations as far 
north as Philadelphia, Prof. Newcomb, of the Mawtical 
Almanac, Washington, reports that the first shock occurred at 
9.53.20, and the second at 9.54.30, lasting until 9.59. The 
Signal Service Bureau at Washington reports that four distinct 
shocks were felt there. The first began at 9.54, and lasted 4o 
seconds, the second at 10.0.4, the third at 10.10, and another 
at 10.30. Charleston, in South Carolina, suffered most severely, 
—the streets were blocked with fallen buildings, telegraph poles, 
and tangled wires. The population spent the night in the 
streets. As usual after violent earthquakes, fires broke out. 
The principal business quarter and two-thirds of the dwelling- 
houses have been destroyed, and the town was isolated from the 
outside world, the bridges and railroads being all destroyed. Sul- 
livan’s Island, a watering-place near Charleston, was submerged 
by a tidal wave. At Columbia, in the same State, ten distinct 
shocks of earthquake were felt, the last at 10.20 on the morning 
of the Ist inst. Fresh shocks were felt in the afternoon of the 
1st at Augusta, Charleston, and Columbus, and during the same 
day throughout North and South Carolina and Georgia, and 
many fissures opened, emitting fresh water, white sand, and blue 
mud from a great depth. At 11.55 on the night of the rst 
another violent shock in Charleston brought down several 
houses. Since that date, shocks of more or less violence have 
continued up to the present in the States above-mentioned. 
This earthquake is believed to have disturbed a greater extent 
of territory than any earthquake on record. Twenty-two States, 
covering an area of a million square miles, were affected. 
Toronto and London in Ontario are said to have felt some 
symptoms of disturbance. The natural phenomena accompany- 
ing the earthquake are curious. The fissures in the earth, 
whence the sulphurous fumes arise, are not confined to Charleston 
itself, but are found for miles round the town. From these 
fissures is exuded sand, white in some places, and red in others. 
From other openings brackish tepid water has been spouted 
from 15 to 20 feet high. These fissures are not made by the 
sinking of the ground, but by the tearing apart of the earth’s 
crust. Sometimes they are 20 yards long, and they are of 
uncertain depth. They could be seen to widen and contract 
during the shocks, and sand, water, and an unfamiliar sub- 
stance of an oily paste character was expelled. After these 
ejections mound-like cones remained. The water in the wells 
was observed to rise and fall. At Summerville, the holiday 
resort of the people of Charleston, detonations were heard about 
once in ten minutes in all directions, but they appeared to have 
no relation with the earthquake shocks. ‘There are some doubt- 
ful reports of flames being seen proceeding from the ground. 
The atmosphere during the earlier phenomena was oppressive, 
and so still was the air that the lamps burned out of doors for 
hours without flickering. A violent shock which visited part of 
South Carolina at 11 o’clock on the night of the 5th, was fol- 
lowed after an interval of five minutes by two brilliant meteors 
which shot across thesky from north tosouth. A curious occur- 
rence is reported by the Correspondent of the Zimes. He says 
that on the 2nd inst. at Charleston ‘* two showers of morsels of 
flints, abraded by mechanical action, were noticed, some 
having been recently fractured. The first shower fell at 7.30 
a.m., and the second at 11.” At the Signal Office at Wash- 
NATURE 
ington the self-registering wind-vane shows a horizontal mark 
preceding and sub equent to the shaking, denoting a mild, 
steady, and almost invariable breeze. But during the 30 or 
40 seconds of the most violent shaking, the marks indicate: 
that the pencil point moved up and down the paper many times 
with great rapidity. The effect of the earthquake at sea is 
described by the captain of the steamer Palatka, He had just 
left Charleston, and was twelve miles off the harbour of Port 
Royal, in eight fathoms and a half, when he heard a terrible 
rumbling, lasting a minute and a half. There had been 
a heavy sea from the south-east, but when the rumbling 
began the wave-motion ceased, and the waters remained 
in a perfect calm until the rumbling ended, when the swell was 
again manifest. ‘The wind was south-east and light, the weather 
cloudy, the barometer 30°01, and the thermometer at 80°. The 
ship’s timbers vibratcd strongly. No unusual meteorological 
conditions prevailed at Charleston before, during, or after the 
earthquake on the first day, according to the officer of the Signal 
Service. Profs. Mendenhall and M‘Gee are investigating the 
effects of the earthquake at Charleston and Summerville. 
Earthquakes are also reported from Malaga, where a severe 
shock occurred, on the 1st and morning of the 2nd ; from Santa 
Cruz, in California, at 11.45 on the morning of the 2nd, where it 
is described as not violent, but long-continued ; and from Smyrna, 
where several sharp shocks were felt between 10 and 12 on the 
night of the 31st, that is almost simultaneously with the American | 
earthquake. A telegram dated the 5th inst., from Athens, 
reports that the shocks at Pyrgos have been renewed. ; 
We have received several letters relating to the earthquake in 
the Eastern Mediterranean of the 27th ult. Prof. Forel, of Morges, 
writes that, as it extended at least from Alexandria to Berne, it~ 
covered an area of about 25° diameter. At Berne the seismo- 
graph of the Observatory marked the shock at 1oh. 36m. 16s. 
local time, corresponding to 22h. 6m. 30s. Greenwich time. If, 
continues Prof. Forel, we admit, in accordance with the times 
recorded at Benevento, Fermo, Pesaro, and Zante, that the 
time of the shock at the centre was 22h. Im. 20s. + 70s. Green: 
wich time, then the seismic wave would have taken 5m, IOs. to 
reach Berne. It is said that the shock was felt at Alexandria 
15 minutes after midnight, in which case progress in that direc- 
tion was a little slower ; put into Greenwich time, this would 
be 22h. I5m., or about I4m. for transmission from Zante to. 
Alexandria. In Switzerland a small preparatory shock was felt 
in the Alps of Vaud, about 11 minutes before the Berne shock. 
Mr. Henry Simon, writing from Engelberg, in Obwalden, states 
that the shock was distinctly felt there as a swaying motion 
about 10.20 by several of the visitors and in different houses. 
THE SCOTTISH METEOROLOGICAL SOCIET 
THE following is an abstract of the Report of the Council 
read at the meeting of the Scottish Meteorological Society 
held on July 22 :— 
Since the general meeting of the Society in March, the num- 
ber of the Society’s stations has remained the same. 
The membership of the Society now numbers 719, being 7 
more than at the meeting in March. 7 
The preparation of a fourth paper on the climate of the 
British Islands, dealing with the monthly rainfall for the twenty 
years 1866-85, is now far advanced, and the results are prac- 
tically and scientifically of great interest. 
Much time has been spent in preparing for the press the whole 
of the observations of the Ben Nevis Observatory and those of the 
station at Fort William for the two years and a half from December 
1883 to May 1886. The volume will shortly be in the hands of 
scientific men in all parts of the world. In connection with 
these valuable observations, the investigation of the importan 
question of the bearing of the results on the weather of these 
islands is steadily advancing. ; 
The position of the Ben Nevis Observatory on an elevates 
isolated peak, and the adjoining low-level station at Fort William 
being close to the sea, and on a bank sloping down to it, renders 
this pair of stations second to none anywhere yet established for 
the investigation of some of the fundamental facts of meteoro- 
logy. Among the more important of these questions is the de: 
termination of the rate of decrease of temperature with height, 
and the rate of diminution of atmospheric pressure with height, 
for different atmospheric temperatures and sea-level pressures. 
