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as fast as they came in, and some very sad ones were altogether past 
help. There was no laudanum to be had, as every bottle was broken. 
The doctor’s forecourt garden, filled with the injured, was a sad sight. 
As dusk came on the increasing glare in the sky showed that the fire 
was approaching, and naturally enough this caused a panic among 
the poor creatures who could not run away. However, I went out 
to reconnoitre, and comforted the patients by telling them that 
the house was cut off from the fire by large gardens. When dark¬ 
ness closed in, and there was but one lamp—by the light of which 
an amputation was being .performed—we had to go: my wife tired 
out, and myself quite ready for food and drink and rest. I had just 
secured a cab, by the offer of a sovereign, when we got the use of a 
private carriage on the condition of taking a patient home and then 
visiting another. 
That night the guests of the Constant Spring Hotel slept on 
mattresses on the lawn, not daring to stay in the shattered building. 
It was a lovely night, and the Southern Cross shone out peacefully 
over the glare of the still burning city. The sensation of feeling 
mother-earth from time to time shake under one’s head, as the 
numerous after-tremors passed across the island, was as new as it was 
strange. 
The earthquake did not consider people’s convenience in any 
way; thus, a lady at the Constant Spring Hotel was in her bath at 
the time. This lady’s sister was ill in bed, but her husband carried 
her into the garden wrapped in a blanket. In a private house 
another lady, the wife of a high official, was taking her siesta; she 
saw the wall at the foot of her bed waving towards her, so she, very 
discreetly, pulled the pillow over her head. Then the wall fell— 
outwards—and the roof followed, but the bed was quietly launched 
into the drawing-room, the roof falling in such a way that the lady 
slid down under its cover, and escaped serious injury. It is stated 
that the front of a house fell out, then the first floor gently subsided 
to the ground level, and the occupants, two elderly ladies, quietly 
walked into the street. 
I myself saw a house in one of the principal streets looking like 
a doll’s house with the front open. Nothing seemed damaged save 
the front wall, but that had fallen out. On the first floor was a 
table set out for a meal, with bottles and glasses untouched. It was 
more like a scene at a theatre than real life. 
These terrifying natural phenomena may, however, be viewed 
from quite another aspect. Earthquakes may be considered as 
