GENEBAL DESCRIPTION OF EFFECTS OF EARTHQUAKE. <■. 15 



through the centre of which a circular flue was carried up from the 

 boiler of the steam engine which g-ave the motive power to the saw 

 mills. The longer axis of the building bore south-south-east, the furnace 

 chimney being placed at the north-west corner of the building. 



After the shock of the 10th January, the only portions of this 

 building left standing were the solid walls at the corners. All between 

 these solid parts on the north, east, and south sides was overthrown, 

 and of the five detached piers which supported the arched openings on 

 the west side, three also were down. Two, those next to the furnace 

 stack alone stood, together with the chimney, and very obviously owed 

 their preservation to the additional strength given by the heavier and 

 more massive construction of this part of the building. 



The greater portion of the debris of the fallen walls lay in remarkably 

 well-defined masses, the piers, arches &c. having clearly come down 

 not piecemeal but in one mass, the breaking up being due to the 

 fall and impingement on the- solid ground. In this way, as will be 

 more clearly seen by reference to the sketch plan PI. VII, the east 

 and west walls lay on the ground, so that the piers and arches of the 

 original construction could readily be traced, the piers quite as parallel 

 one to the other now that they lay shattered on the ground as they had 

 been before, when standing in the finished building. The direction in 

 which they were thrown was, therefore, very readily ascertainable; 

 it was S. 89° W. At the ends, however, of the building the mass 

 of debris seemed at first sight to have been simply broken out from 

 the comer buttresses and laid down, so little broken was the larger 

 portion of the brickwork ; in both cases the walls were thrown outwards, 

 that is in opposite directions — the southern wall being thrown to the 

 south, and that of the northern end to the north. On the eastern side 

 lay one solitary block of brickwork of no great size, a solid block 

 originally part of the most northerly of the piers of the eastern wall 

 near the base of which it lay after the destruction. It was not square 

 with the base, but had been slewed round in its fall. But as I am 

 unable, from the information at my command, to say how far this may 



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