be nearly vertical, rapid, vibratory, and jerking. It was
sufficient, I have no doubt, to have thrown down brick
chimneys and walls and church towers; but as the houses
here are all low, and strongly framed of timber, it is impossible
for them to be much injured, except by a shock that
would utterly destroy a European city. The people told me
it was ten years since they had had a stronger shock than
this, at which time many houses were thrown down and
some people killed.
At intervals of ten minutes to half an hour, slight
shocks and tremors were felt, sometimes strong enough to
send us all out again. There was a strange mixture of
the terrible and the ludicrous in our situation. We might
at any moment have a much stronger shock, which would
bring down the house over us, or—what I feared more—
cause a landslip, and send us down into the deep ravine
on the very edge of which the village is built; yet I
could not help laughing each time we ran out at a slight
shock, and then in a few moments ran in again. The
sublime and the ridiculous were here literally but a step
apart. On the one hand, the most terrible and destructive
of natural phenomena was in action around us—the rocks,
the mountains, the solid earth were trembling and convulsed,
and we were utterly impotent to guard against the
danger that might at any moment overwhelm us. On the
other hand was the spectacle of a number of men, women,
and children running in and out of their houses, on what
each time proved a very unnecessary alarm, as each shock
ceased just as it became strong enough to frighten us. I t
seemed really very much like “ playing at earthquakes,”
and made many of the people join me in a hearty laugh,
even while reminding each other that it really might be no
laughing matter.
At length the evening got very cold, and I became very
sleepy, and determined to turn in ; leaving orders to my
boys, who slept nearer the door, to wake me in case the
house was in danger of falling. But I miscalculated
my apathy, for I could not sleep much. i The shocks
continued at intervals of half an hour or an hour all
night, just strong enough to wake me thoroughly each
time and keep me on the alert ready to jump up in case
of danger. I was therefore very glad when morning came.
Most of the inhabitants had not been to bed at all, and
some had stayed out of doors all night. For the next
two days and nights shocks still continued at short intervals,
and several times a day for a week, showing that
there was some very extensive disturbance beneath our
portion of the earth’s crust. How vast the forces at work
really are can only be properly appreciated when, after
feeling their effects, we look abroad over the wide expanse
of hill and valley, plain and mountain, and thus realize in
a slight degree the immense mass of matter heaved and