saath 
ON THE FACTS AND THEORY OF EARTHQUAKE PHENOMENA. 135 
trembled to its foundation. The mass thus moved has been considerable.’’—Times, 
April 17th, 1857. 
The following is the ‘Times’ account of one of the explosions at the siege of 
Sebastopol :— 
“Thursday, Aug. 30, 1855.—The whole of the camp was shaken this morning 
at 1 o’clock by a prodigious explosion, which produced the effects of an earthquake. 
A deplorable accident had occurred to our gallant allies as they were pursuing their 
works with accustomed energy. A tumbrel, from which they were discharging 
powder into one of the magazines near the Mamelon, was struck by a shell from 
the Russian batteries, which burst as it crashed through the roof of the carriage, and 
ignited the cartridges within; the fldmes caught the powder in the magazine, and, 
with a hideous roar, 14,000 rounds of gunpowder rushed forth in a volcano of fire to 
the skies, shattering to atoms the magazine, the tumbrels, and all the surrounding 
works, and whirling from its centre in all directions over the face of the Mamelon 
and beyond it 150 officers and men. Masses of earth, gabions, stones, fragments of 
carriages, and heavy shot were hurled far into our works on the left of the French, 
and wounded several of our men. The light of the explosion was not great, but 
the roar and shock of the earth were very considerable. The heaviest sleepers awoke 
and rushed out of their tents. The weight of powder exploded was about seven 
tons, or 1400 rounds of 10Ibs. each.””—Times, Sept. 13, 1855. 
The following is part of the French account of the expedition against Kertch -— 
“May 26tk, 1855.—Finally, before evacuating Yenikale, they blew up a powder 
magazine, containing about 30,000 kilogrammes of powder: the shock was so great, 
that many houses were destroyed, and vessels anchored ten miles out at sea felt it 
severely.”’—‘ Moniteur’ quoted by ‘ Times,’ June 1855. 
And the following of the great explosion in the camp before Sebastopol, on the 
15th of November 1855 :— 
«Shortly after 3 o’clock on Thursday afternoon the whole camp, from Inkermann 
to far beyond Cathcart’s Hill, was literally shaken throughout every square foot of 
its area, by the most tremendous explosion that has ever echoed through these 
Crimean hills. A greater quantity of gunpowder itself may have been exploded in 
some of the magazines discharged for the destruction of the buildings and works 
after the abandonment of the ruined city and fortress; but this is doubtful, and 
certainly there were never fired at the same time so great a number and variety of 
deadly and explosive projectiles. The force of the blow from the impelled air, the 
stunning noise, the flashing of the fire, the suffocating smoke, arrested every reason- 
ing faculty, and took away all sense, save the instinctive impulse to fly from the 
source of evil. Among the regiments themselves of the light division, whether in 
tents or huts, a sudden sensation was felt as if of an upheaving of the ground, at the 
same time that a violent shock was experienced from the concussion of the air. 
Almost instantly followed the loud report of the explosion; not sounding as if a 
single charge or magazine had been fired, and without the ringing tone or decided 
character of a salvo of artillery ; but seeming rather as if a number of magazines had 
been discharged, one after the other, so rapidly, that all the reports were blended into 
one. As the thunder of the first report subsided, its place was occupied by the 
sharp cracking sounds of shells bursting high in the air, the rush of fragments falling 
to the ground, and the loud bangs of shells which had been scattered and were ex- 
ploding on all sides. Simultaneous with these, almost from the very commencement, 
was the crushing of wooden huts, splitting of timbers, and noise of falling glass from 
the broken windows. The tents were violently agitated, and sometimes the cords 
or poles were snapped asunder. Then followed a continued succession of minor 
reports, and the roar of flames, and crackling of burning wood, as the fire advanced 
and increased among the huts and artillery stores of the siege train dépéts. To say 
that it equalled in violence the combined salvos of a thousand parks of artillery 
might seem extravagant; and yet the simile would but feebly convey an idea of the 
volume of thundering sound that shook the earth for miles around, tearing down 
the most substantial masonry and wooden huts, and levelling tents as by the sweep 
of some invisible giant-arm. I had seen the explosions on and after the 8th of 
September, which so many pens have since described ; but no half-dozen of them 
