COMPARISON WITH OTHER SEVERE EARTHQUAKES IN SAME REGION. 441 
Berkeley. — The State Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind lost 11 chimneys and 
2 gables, and rear walls were cracked in several places. (Oakland News, Oct. 21, 1868.) 
Oakland. — Shock preceded by a rumbling sound. Pans of milk and tubs of water 
emptied almost in a moment; trees whipt about like straws; many houses twisted 5 
or 6 inches out of square, particularly those on brick foundations. The crashing of 
falling brick at the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute was heard a few blocks to the 
south before the shock was felt. Chimneys very generally down, particularly those 
on south and east sides; in some parts all chimneys thrown. Many chimneys twisted, 
if not thrown. Many brick buildings were shattered, and several wharves went down 
with loads of brick, coal, hay, etc. In Brooklyn, as in Oakland, many chimneys were 
broken off at the roofs. (Alta California, Oct. 22, 1868.) 
The drawbridge of the San Francisco and Oakland Railway was thrown out of place 
about 8 inches. (Centennial Book of Alameda County, p. 266.) 
Thruout the city chimneys and walls fell south. (Oakland News.) 
Of two-houses next each other the older one stood on posts 4 feet above the ground, 
while the other was supposed to be earthquake proof. The basement walls were solid 
and of good workmanship. The old house was badly shaken, but not injured; the 
earthquake-proof house had the basement walls cracked, all the ceilings thrown down, 
and the marble mantel in each of the rooms thrown upon the floor. (Geo. Davidson.) 
Alameda. — Shock very severe. Scarcely a house escaped uninjured. (Alta Cali- 
fornia, Oct. 23, 1868.) 
San Leandro. — The earthquake was much more severe than in Oakland or Alameda. 
Not a building escaped some injury. Chimneys fell north and south. The court-house 
was inruins. A tank 10 feet wide and 6 feet deep was entirely emptied of water. The 
bed of San Leandro Creek, which had been dry for several months, became filled with 
a stream of water 6 feet wide and a foot deep. A team of mules descending a hill 9 miles 
east of Haywards, were thrown to their knees. A rumble preceded the shock. The 
rangers on the old Peralta rancho said the crack past through the foot-hills on to Saks 
land. (Various old residents.) 
San Lorenzo.— The limbs of a sycamore tree, 24 feet high, struck the ground. 
(G. Hyde.) 
Flat irons and a kettle were jerked off the stove southward. (Mrs. Adams.) 
House and barn were both prostrated. (Mrs. E. H. Gansberger.) 
A house was thrown off its foundations. Chimneys were thrown northward. 
(E. Llewellyn.) 
Haywards. — The crack past diagonally up the Haywards Hill and crost 3 feet from 
the south corner of the old hotel; past just east of the Odd Fellows’ Building, through 
the Castro lot, tearing off a corner of the adobe house which stood where the jail now 
is, on through Walpert’s Hill toward Decoto. By the hotel the crack first opened 18 
to 20 inches, but soon closed to 5 or 6. It was of unknown depth; several balls of twine, 
tied together, with an iron sinker, failed to find bottom. There was no water in the 
fissure, for the iron came up dry. From the corner of B and First Streets another crack 
past nearly eastward toward the hills, and faded out by the sulfur spring about 1.5 
miles distant. (Mrs. Wm. Haywards.) In a general way, the crack from Haywards 
to beyond Decoto past from 100 to 300 feet above the base of the hills. Practically 
not a house was left on its foundations in Haywards. At one place south of town the 
fault showed a throw of some 3 feet. (W. H. Weilbye.) 
“Since October 5, 1862, I have lived in Haywards, Alameda County, and I well remem- 
ber the earthquake of October, 1868. Being lameand having used a cane from childhood, 
I had never walked without it until that morning. I was working in my shop at the 
time. On feeling the terrible shock, and on the impulse of the moment, I managed to 
