242 HOVEY— EARTHQUAKES : [April 24, 



Meanwhile the whole island trembled and shook. Day and night the 

 throbbing and quaking were nearly continuous. No one attempted to count 

 the sudden jars and prolonged throes, so rapid was their succession. And 

 even during the intervals between the quakes, the ground and all objects 

 upon it seemed to quiver like the surface of a boiling pot. The quaking 

 was most fearful in Kau. . . . The shocks and quiverings cintinued with 

 different degrees of intensity until Thursday, the second inst. [April] . . . 

 when, at 4 P. M., a shock occurred which was absolutely terrific. All over 

 Kau and Hilo the earth was rent in a thousand places, opening cracks and 

 fissures from an inch to many feet in width, throwing over stone-walls, 

 prostrating trees, breaking down banks and precipices, demolishing nearly 

 all stone churches and dwellings, and filling the people with consternation. 

 This shock lasted about three minutes. 



Mr. F. S. Lyman^ writes as follows of his experiences at Kau 



during this disturbance : 



First the earth swayed to and fro from north to south, then from east 

 to west, then round and round, up and down, and finally in every imagin- 

 able direction, for several minutes, everything crashing around and the 

 trees thrashing as if torn by a hurricane, and there was a sound as of a 

 mighty rushing wind. It was impossible to stand ; we had to sit on the 

 ground, bracing with hands and feet to keep from being rolled over. . . . 

 The villages on the shore were swept away by the great wave that rushed 

 upon tlie land immediately after the earthquake. 



Some observers estimated that more than 2,000 shocks occurred 

 during this period of disturbance. In spite of the violence of this 

 earthquake on Mauna Loa, it was quite local in extent. No damage 

 was done in the northern half of Hawaii even by the heavy shock of 

 April 2. This shock was felt distinctly on the island of Maui, no 

 miles distant, for 90 seconds, shaking furniture, pictures and walls 

 and causing small sea waves. At Oaliu, 210 miles from the cen- 

 trum, the shocks were slight, and though they occurred in the middle 

 of the afternoon, most of the inhabitants of Honolulu were not 

 aware that an earthquake had occurred. 



From the human standpoint, the most disastrous of the earth- 

 quakes assigned to volcanic causes is that which occurred at Casa- 

 micciola on the Island of Ischia, July 28, 1883. When it took place 

 there was a large assemblage of people in the theater, which was of 

 stone and collapsed under the shock, killing most of the audience. 

 Only one house in the whole town was left standing and it is esti- 

 mated that about 1,900 people lost their lives in the disaster. In 



'^Am. Jour. Sci, II., xlvi., iio, July, 1868. 



