Slight movements of the
earth's surface are much more common than many of us imagine, and in
the history of our land there have been a number of earth shocks
of considerable violence. Prior to that of San Francisco, the most
destructive to life and property was that of Charleston in 1886, though
the 1812 convulsion in the Mississippi Valley might have proved a
much greater calamity but for the fact that civilized man had not then
largely invaded its centre of action.
As regards the number of earth movements in this country, we are told
that in New England alone 231 were recorded in two hundred and fifty
years, while doubtless many slighter ones were left unrecorded. Taking
the whole United States, there were 364 recorded in the twelve years
from 1872 to 1883, and in 1885 fifty-nine were recorded, more than
two-thirds of them being on the Pacific slope. Most of these, however,
were very slight, some of them barely perceptible.
Confining ourselves to those of the past important in their effects, we
shall first speak of the shocks which took place in New England in 1755,
in the year and month of the great earthquake at Lisbon. On the 18th of
November of that year, while the shocks at Lisbon still continued,
New England was violently shaken, loud underground explosive noises
accompanying the shocks. In the harbors along the Atlantic coast there
was much agitation of the waters and many dead fish were thrown up on
the shores. The shock, indeed, was felt far from the coast, by the
crew of a ship more than two hundred miles out at sea from Cape Ann,
Massachusetts.
Pages:
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223