CHAPTER XVII.
The Charleston and Other Earthquakes of the United States.
The twin continents of America have rivalled the record of the Old World
in their experience of earthquakes since their discovery in 1492. The
first of these made note of was in Venezuela in 1530, but they have been
numerous and often disastrous since. Among them was the great shock at
Lima in 1746, by which 18,000 were killed, and those at Guatemala in
1773, with 33,000, and at Riobamba in 1797, with 41,000 victims. It
will, however, doubtless prove of more interest to our readers if we
pass over these ruinous disasters and confine ourselves to the less
destructive earthquakes which have taken place within our own country.
The United States, large a section of North America as it occupies, is
fortunate in being in a great measure destitute of volcanic phenomena,
while destructive earthquakes have been very rare in its history. This,
it is true, does not apply to the United States as it is, but as it was.
It has annexed the volcano and the earthquake with its new accessions of
territory. Alaska has its volcanoes, the Philippines are subject to
both forms of convulsion, and in Hawaii we possess the most spectacular
volcano of the earth, while the earthquake is its common attendant.
But in the older United States the volcano contents itself with an
occasional puff of smoke, and eruptive phenomena are confined to the
minor form of the geyser.
We are by no means so free from the earthquake.
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