150 EAETHQUAKES. 



was so powerful that it caused a general sickness which 

 swept away about 3,000 persons.^ 



From the fissures formed at Concepcion in 1835, water, 

 which was black and foetid, issued.^ 



The earthquakes of New England in 1727 were 

 accompanied by the formation of fissures, from which 

 sand and water boiled out in sufficient quantity to form 

 a quagmire. In some places ash and sulphur are said to 

 have been ejected. 



At one house the stink of sulphur accompanying the 

 earthquake was so great that the family could not bear to 

 remain in doors.^ 



Emanations of gas sometimes appear to have burst 

 out from submarine sources. 



Thus the earthquake at Lima, in March, 1865, was 

 accompanied with great agitation of the water and an 

 odour of sulphuretted and carburetted hydrogen. This 

 former gas was developed to such an extent that the 

 white paint of the U.S. ship ' Lancaster ' was blackened.'* 

 With the smell, flames have sometimes been observed, 

 as, for instance, at the time of the Lisbon earthquake. 



At the time of the earthquakes of 1811 and 1813, in 

 the Mississippi valley, steam and smoke issued from some 

 of the fissures which were formed. 



Instances are recorded where stones have been shot 

 up from fissures unaccompanied by water, as, for instance, 

 at the earthquake of Pasto (January, 1834). It is imagined 

 that the propelling power must have been the sudden 

 expansion of escaping gases. 



It has been suggested that flames seen above fissures 



» PMl. Trans, vols. li. and xviii. ; Gent. Mag. vol, xx. 212. 



« Trans. Royal Geog. Soc. vol. vi. 



3 Phil. Trans, vols, xxxvi. and xxxix. 



« Am. Jour, of Sci. 1865, vol. xl. p. 365. 



