76 H. P. Malet — On Earthquakes. 



There are natural forces always at work, whicli bring matter 

 under the law. The wind lifts up dust from the earth, and some of 

 it falls again. The rain falls to the ground, and percolating through 

 it till it finds an impermeable stratum, gravitates along its surface 

 till a level is found. Wherever we find water in a moving condition, 

 we see that matter moves along with it. Water and air move all 

 things that submit to their influence, every thing, that is so moved, 

 becomes, sooner or later, liable to the law of gravitation. 



Certain materials in this earth, under certain conditions, are liable 

 to the law of attraction ; while under this influence they become 

 more or less liable to gravitate. In the natural deposits of matter 

 we find heterogeneous raixtures, but as the silex separates itself from 

 the chalk, as ironstone nodules form in sand and clay, as chert- 

 bands form in limestone, by self-attraction and cohesion ; so 

 atoms must be perpetually moving, and every atom that moves 

 voluntarily must leave its place unoccupied, while the place of any 

 atom moved by force is occupied by the substance which exercised 

 the force, air or water. Wherever subterranean water runs it 

 must act as it acts on the surface, eroding, and moving on some- 

 thing in every inch of its progress. The water occupies the place of 

 all things moved by it, but atoms are eroded from the body they 

 belonged to. Under the action of these never-wearying forces, 

 certain areas, or portions of this earth's surface, must occasionally be 

 left without their natural supports, and their self-sustaining adhesive 

 qualities ; so that these areas or portions, either in part or whole, 

 become liable to the law of gravitation. With pressure from above, 

 no support, or a soft one below, and a material deprived of its 

 adhesive power, there is, there always has been, and there always will 

 be, a universal tendency for earthy matter to work downwards. 



This tendency may be illustrated by the following examples. The 

 Athenceum, 9th October, 1869, mentioned an earthquake at Murwut. 

 East India, where the "underground moisture is commonly found 

 two feet below the surface;" it rose after the earthquake to "about 

 six inches below the surface, not in one spot only, but throughout the 

 sandy tract of the district." In this case the sand, being dry and 

 untenacious, without sufficient support for its weight, sunk bodily 

 into the water-bed; so that the moisture rose to near the surface. 

 This action is very common in sandy regions, but is seldom noticed, 

 even in our footprints- In the Times, 6th July, 1871, an earthquake 

 is recorded at Bathung, in China, over an area of some 400 miles, 

 when " black fetid water spouted out in a furious manner." The 

 nature of the soil is not mentioned, but it fell into, and displaced the 

 water below; so that, having no other channel of escape, it was 

 forcibly ejected through the crevices made by the fall. 



In 1783-86 constant shocks of earthquake took place in Calabria, 

 with upbursts of water and sand," " not fewer than 215 lakes and 

 morasses were occasioned by displacement of the ground." The 

 Quarterly also says of other regions, " Violent vibrations, down- 

 sliding of hills, stoppage of rivers, formations of lakes, in-rushing 

 of sea-waves have taken place." 



