ON THE RECENT RIVIERA EARTHQUAKE. 
243 
terrific sound ; in one bed-room the window was smashed, 
and light was seen through a gaping crack in the outside 
wall. They snatched up such things as they could lay hands 
on, and rushed down the lofty marble stairs, which seemed 
to sway as they passed, and afterwards partly gave way under 
the subsequent shocks. It was then scarcely daylight (being 
in February), and all the company assembled in the hall and 
seemed to pause a little ; but another alarming shock quickly 
came, and they flew down the flight of steps out into the 
garden of the hotel. It is remarked that never will they 
forget, as they shivered out there in the cold early morning, 
the sight of the horrid vivid red glow on the jagged 
mountains above (though so beautiful a scene at other times), 
as the sun rose on all this horror and destruction, and it 
seemed as if the end of the world was upon them. 
The scenes around were sad enough. In the hotel a 
dying gentleman with nurse was left inside, and a lady dying 
was left in the next large boarding-liouse; both were at last 
carried out and laid in the garden, where also was a poor 
lady lying motionless on blankets in an attack brought on by 
fright. About two hours after the first two shocks, when 
it was supposed the shocks were over, another third one 
occurred, and after that they were unable to go into their 
hotel again, and some of the clothes left in their rooms were 
lowered to them in a sheet out of a window. They went on 
afterwards towards the railway station to endeavour to get 
away from the place, and were pulled up on the way by a sen¬ 
sation “resembling a horrible immense hot snake wriggling 
under their feet.” At the railway station they found the roof 
and walls so cracked that they feared to go in, and having 
learned that the railway bridge beyond the station was cracked, 
and that the succeeding towns to Mentone were also in a 
bad state, they stopped the night at Mentone, and managed 
to hire for 100 francs a small carriage to sleep in. Another 
slight shock occurred in the afternoon, and though no more 
shocks occurred that day beyond slight tremours, no one 
who has not gone through it can possibly understand how the 
recurrence of tremours, though slight, keeps the mind in a 
sense of suspense and expectation that makes it impossible 
to rest. It was reckoned that there were altogether from 
thirty to forty shocks of different degrees. 
The other party of friends referred to were also staying at 
Mentone, but at a distant part, which was much less affected 
by the earthquake, and the hotel where they were sleeping 
was higher up on the rock, and was not damaged. They 
were sleeping on the first floor above the ground, and were 
