SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH EARTHQUAKES 



59 



Nor is that the only time Bogoslof has 

 changed. When the revenue cutter "Ta- 

 homa" called there on September lo, 1910, 

 it was found that what was once a group 

 of islands had now become a single mass 

 of land, with several peaks. The cutter's 

 officers found on the new-born land the 

 skeletons of myriads of sea-birds that 

 had been roasted alive before they could 

 fly away from the terrible upheaval 

 caused by the submarine explosion. They 

 had been burned in such a fervent heat 

 that the skeletons crumbled to dust upon 

 being touched. Nine days later the "Ta- 

 homa" visited Bogoslof again, and when 

 25 miles off, witnessed another eruption, 

 which resulted in another upheaval and 

 another change in the appearance of the 

 island. 



But volcanoes, terrible and impressive 

 as they are, are hardly worthy of com- 

 parison with the great earthquakes. The 

 volcanic effects are of limited area, while 

 the "earth movers" frequently extend 

 thousands of miles, marking their paths 

 with destruction. 



It has been observed that in certain 

 portions of the South Pacific Ocean there 

 are almost continuous eruptions of fire, 

 water, and foreign bodies, forming con- 

 siderable islands in inconceivably short 

 periods, which quite as frequently vanish 

 again beneath the waves. 



The eruption of the volcano of Kraka- 

 toa was a most wonderful illustration of 

 this hidden power. Ashes were projected 

 14 miles into the air and carried 600 

 miles, while the accompanying tidal wave 

 swept the shores for immense distances, 

 submerging all life. 



the: human Tor,i, of earthquakes 



One appalling feature of earthquakes 

 is the almost instant death of thousands 

 of people. What wonder, then, that no 

 other phenomenon of nature produces 

 such unreasoning terror in all forms of 

 life? 



Tracing back, it is recorded that in 373 

 B. C. Burao Helico, called the Superb, 

 was engulfed in the Sea of Corinth and 

 over 100.000 inhabitants drowned. 



In 13 A. D., 13 great and noble cities of 

 Asia Minor were destroyed in one night. 

 The destruction of Burao Helico was 



paralleled Novemoer 4, 1799, at Cumana, 

 a magnificent New World city, situate 

 on the Venezuelan coast, where, almost 

 in the twinkling of an eye, the city, with 

 all its unhappy inhabitants, sank beneath 

 the waves. 



the destruction oe port royae 



The last earthquake at Kingston, Ja- 

 maica, almost sinks into insignificance 

 when compared with that which de- 

 stroyed the old city of Port Royal, practi- 

 cally on the same location, on June 7, 

 1692. Immense waves swept over the 

 town, and in less than three minutes sub- 

 merged 2,500 houses, drowning nearly all 

 the inhabitants. The sea remained 33 

 feet above even the steeples of the town, 

 and the large English frigate "Swan" was 

 carried safely over the city and escaped 

 to sea. 



Lisbon was destroyed in 1755, when, 

 it is computed, 60,000 people perished in 

 less than two minutes. 



The destruction of Sodom and Gomor- 

 rah, the wicked cities of the plain, by fire 

 sent from heaven, is paralleled by the 

 utter destruction of a small town in 

 Equador by fires bursting through the 

 ground. 



I quote from a quaint account given by 

 "a member of the Royal Academy" at 

 Berlin concerning the birth of an island : 



"At a place in the sea where fishermen 

 vised to fish every summer, called La 

 Fermera, 6 miles from Pico Delia Cara- 

 mine, upon the fifth Sunday in July, a 

 subterranean fire — notwithstanding the 

 weight and depths of the sea in that place, 

 which was 120 feet by soundings, and 

 the multitude of waters, which one would 

 have thought sufficient to have quenched 

 the fire^ — fire, I say, broke out with inex- 

 pressible violence, carrying with it up to 

 the clouds water, sand, earth, stone, and 

 other bulk of bodies, after which was 

 formed an island in the main ocean, which 

 was not, at first, over 5 furlongs ; but in 

 13 days it had extended to 14 miles." 



RIDING A TIDAL WAVE 



It is the purpose of this article to re- 

 cord a thrilling experience in one of the 

 modern earthquakes, in which a United 

 States man-of-war was carried on the 



