1868 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
419 
mw® <k aims’ (wotto* 
Fearful Convulsions. 
A few months since we gave in the American Agricul¬ 
turist a brief account of some of the most remarkable 
earthquakes on record, and the great destruction caused 
by them. The world has just been startled by reports of 
the greatest convulsion of this kind known in modern 
times; in some respects perhaps the most remarkable 
known to man. A district of country on the west coast 
of South America, 800 miles long , and from 200 to 300 
miles wide, was shaken with fearful violence. Whole 
cities were thrown down in ruins, and thousands of the 
unfortunate inhabitants destroyed. In many places the 
earth opened, and smoke, steam, hot water or mud, were 
vomited forth in immense volumes. The force of the 
shock drove the waters of the Pacific away from the coast, 
and soon they came rolling back in an immense wave, 
fifty feet high, sweeping every thing before them. The 
Chincha Islands on the coast of Pern, from which the 
largest supplies of guano are derived, were entirely dev¬ 
astated by this fearful tide, and a great number of vessels 
were overwhelmed or wrecked on the shore. Recent ac¬ 
counts mention a startling phenomenon connected with 
the same great convulsion, now going on in Hawaii, 
one of the Sandwich Islands. This island, which covers 
an area of some 4,000 square miles, is apparently slowly 
settling into the sea, a change of several feet in the coast 
level having been noticed within a few months. These 
exhibitions of almost immeasurable power give some 
idea of the untold forces still at work within the earth, 
and which may yet entirely change its whole surface. 
The Revolution in f§j|»5alan. 
Recent accounts from Europe inform us of a revolution 
in Spain, by which Isabella II, the reigning'queen, has 
been deposed. The event is full of interest to the world, 
showing the advancement of right ideas of government. 
Instead of the people being the servants for the support 
aiid glorification of the monarch, the American idea of 
the people being sovereign and the government their 
servants is rapidly advancing. Queen Isabella II is the 
last of the Bourbon family, long noted as tyrannical 
and profligate monarchs. She was proclaimed queen in 
1833, while only three years old. Until she became of 
age, the government was administered by the queen's 
mother, and afterward by General Espartero. By an an¬ 
cient law no female could become sovereign, but Isabel¬ 
la’s father, Ferdinand VII, had abolished the law by his 
simple proclamation, thus excluding his brother, Don 
Carlos, from his rightful succession to the throne. Don 
Carlos enlisted a large 
party in his favor, and 
for years waged civil 
war, known as the 
Carlist war, against the 
adherents of Isabella, 
but he was overpowered 
and driven from the 
country. Isabella was 
made reigning queen 
eleven months before 
she actually became of 
age. Her life has been 
marked by flagrant vio¬ 
lations of right and even 
common decency. She 
was married to her 
cousin in 1846, but was 
notoriously unfaithful to 
him, and chose her 
favorite lovers as her 
prime ministers in the 
government. Fearful of 
rivalry, and incited by 
her ministers, she drove 
her own mother, her 
sister, and brother-in- 
law from the country, 
and also a large number 
of the most distinguish¬ 
ed nobles and officers. 
Her reign has been 
almost a constant scene of turbulence, anarchy, violence, 
and bloodshed. At last retribution has come, and 
her kingdom is lost; let us hope never to be disgraced by 
her restoration. It is yet undecided what form of gov¬ 
ernment will be adopted there ; some are in favor of a 
republic, but they are probably in a minority, and some 
other family may furnish a head for the burden of a 
crown for a while longer, until the people shall have been 
educated to obtain and enjoy complete political freedom. 
Progress in this direction is very rapid all over Europe, 
and a few years may make very surprising changes in all 
the existing governments, and thus add much to history. 
A Squirrel HuiMt. 
A large number of young ladies were gathered in the 
parlor of a boarding academy in Massachusetts, after 
dinner, when a red squirrel ran into the room. In an in¬ 
stant all was confusion. Some screamed with fright and 
sprang upon chairs, others ran from the room, while 
others closed the doors that they might capture him. 
After chasing him a moment or two he suddenly disap¬ 
peared, and could be found nowhere, neither could any 
possible place of escape be detected. Soon after, as the 
ladies gathered at the tea-table, and were about to com¬ 
mence the evening meal, one of them uttered a piercing 
shriek. On examination the squirrel was found snugly 
stowed away in the folds of her skirt at the waist. 
Suggestive Biography.— A dilapidated indi¬ 
vidual was overheard saying to himself: “I began the 
world with nothing, and I have held my own ever since.” 
A Sum-power Engine. 
Mr. Ericsson, the inventor, best known as the origina¬ 
tor of the Monitor during the late war, has completed an 
engine to be driven by sun power. His apparatus has 
not yet been publicly described, but must partly consist 
of some arrangement for collecting the rays of the sun, 
as is done by a burning glass, and using the heat to make 
steam or expand air. It is estimated by him that the 
beat derived from the sunshine on a surface 10 feet square 
(100 square feet) equals one horse-power. If this be 
correct, then the sunshine upon a moderate sized barn 
would give power enough to drive the thrashing machine, 
thrash out all the grain, cut all the wood, pump all the 
water needed, and perhaps do most of the chores, besides 
warming the boys’ fingers in cold weather, and boiling 
the pork for dinner. Seriously, it is not impossible that 
a large portion of the work heretofore done by engines 
burning wood and coal may be accomplished by the 
mere use of the sun’s rays. In fact, the sun has already 
supplied power for all our steam engines. Its rays im¬ 
parted power to the growing forests. In ages gone by 
forests were buried in the earth and changed to coal. 
When coal is burned, it gives out the power which was 
stored up in the wood, changing water to the steam which 
drives the engine and the machinery attached to it. So 
that, after all, Mr. Ericsson has not invented or discovered 
a new power, but gone to the sun, the fountain head, for 
it, instead of drawing it from the reserved stores already 
contained in the earth. If this new arrangement can be 
successfully applied, it will work wonderful changes. 
The boy may now be living who will yet harness his 
balloon to a sunbeam and explore the ocean of air above us. 
Origin, of tlae “Grecian ISend.” 
During a few months past the high fashionable world 
has given to the rest of mankind an exhibition of first 
class folly, called the “ Grecian Bend.” Our artist gives 
a pretty correct representation of an unfortunate female 
afflicted with it, and as he has been reading Darwin’s 
works, he adds his ideas of how the curious monstrosity 
may have been brought about by “gradual development.” 
It is one of the unexplainable mysteries how any one, 
with or without brains, could fancy the stoop and hump 
style to be graceful or attractive. It has justly provoked 
a storm of ridicule, and it remains to be decided whether 
fashion is strong enough to prevail against common sense 
and wit combined. 
Sew IPauzzles to Answered. 
No. 330. Enigma .—A certain article seldom shines, yet 
gives more light than the sun. It can be bought for a 
few cents, yet when spread in a certain way, is worth 
thousands of dollars. It has made thousands happy, 
broken many hearts, been concerned in innumerable 
business transactions, preserved the peace of nations, 
and caused many wars. Whoever looks carefully will see. 
it now before his eyes. What is it ? 
Answers to Problems anti l®aizzles. 
The following are answers to the puzzles, etc., in the 
October number, page 375. No. 326. Metagram. —Plow, 
Blow, Glow, Flow, Slow_No. 327. Law Question .—Not 
guilty. By looking carefully you will see that Brown 
killed 13 Rooks , which certainly was not manslaughter... 
No. 328. Illustrated Rebus .—Laziness begins in cobwebs 
and ends in chains_No. 329. Enigma.—A pump. The 
following have sent in correct answers to puzzles. Samuel 
Freed, Frank Bryant, Hubert. S. Hixon, II. J. Crist, J. A. 
King, J. Milton Snyder, II. Dameron, P. J. Umsted, W. 
L. Pettit, Ginnie Bailey, “X. Y. Z.,” Hattie E. Hawley. 
F’ra.etat'a.l 4|aa«stii<>aa<4 Isa AriaEametle. 
No. 1. Howmany pages of reading may be accomplished 
in ten years, by devoting 
one hour a day to it ? 
Try the experiment a 
few days, young friends, 
not to see how much 
can be got over, but how 
much can be thoroughly 
read so as to be under¬ 
stood and the lead¬ 
ing ideas remembered. 
When it is known how 
many pages can be thus 
mastered per hour, it 
Will be easy to calculate 
how much will be ac¬ 
complished in ten years. 
Perhaps in ciphering it 
out, the total will prove 
so important that some 
thoughtful boys and girls 
will take the hint and 
secure the benefit of a 
valuable fund of infor¬ 
mation. Of course it is 
understood that instruc¬ 
tive books, — travels, 
history, biography, 
works on natural sci¬ 
ence, etc., — shall be 
selected. No. 2.—What 
amount of self-control, 
real will-power, may be 
cultivated in ten years, by persistent and resolute self- 
denial, in some one particular, each day ? The prop¬ 
er subjects to exercise in are those where one is in doubt 
whether they are right or best. Indulgence of the palate, 
of vanity, pride, and especially of anger, and its expres¬ 
sions, including all profanity, will give plenty of oppor¬ 
tunities to exercise self-denial. Estimating by the rule 
given by the Wise Man, that “Hewhoruleth his spirit 
is better than ho who taketli a city,” ten years 
such practice would make a mighty man. It is a 
well-known fact in the lives of the great that self- 
mastery is the strongest element in mastering others. 
