Earthquakes in California.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 139, 9 July 1872, Page 7

Earthquakes in California.

[From the Inyo (Cal.) Independent.]

Monday night, March 25, was calm, clear, and frosty, the moon just past the full, lighting the mountain and valley with perfect distinctness as far as the eye could reach ; there was nothing unnatural in the night or weather. At about 25 minutes past 2 o’clock a.m. the great unknown and unmeasurable power beneath began to rumble and to roar, to heave and toss. The quakings and rumblings were almost incessant, but as a rule they amounted to nothing more than mere tremors ; though every few minutes a sharp, crackling shock would come, startling everybody as only an earthquake can ; but the first, so far, was the only one entailing loss of life or destruction to property, which, Heaven knows, was sufficient. In this place it was soon ascertained that every adobe, brick, or stone building in town, was wholly or partially destroyed, f Adobe is another name for sun-dried bricks.] The upper storey of the Court-house, a twostorey brick, received a send-away to the south, the lower avails left standing, but crushed and cracked to the foundation. County Clerk Hainmerstrand and Under Sheriff Moore were sleeping in their offices on the first floor, but could not get out till after the crash. This was most fortunate for them, for the upper walls fell outward, under which they would have been buried ; an instant later they had these to climb.

The editor of this paper was awakened from a deep sleep to a consciousness of the cries of his terrified wife, and to a partial conception of the terrible convulsions of the earth. With a feeling of indescribable terror, he reached the lloor. Reeling and staggering like a drunken man for a time-measured by the sensations it were an age—he vainly sought to grasp from his crib a sleeping child. It was an impossible task, for as he staggered forward, the crib rolled away, and then came a shock that sent him back against the bed. Ry some means to him unknown he finally got the child in his arms, and started for the kitchen adjoining, a light frame. At the moment a crash was heard in the office, directly overhead, where stood a couple of presses weighing over 200J pounds, which seemed to he breaking through the floor above. Unlocking the outside door, he threw the child to the heaving ground, and returned to meet his wife, as she staggered out with her sleeping babe. Amid the falling plaster and crashing crockery all escaped without a scratch. The whole time thus occupied probably did not exceed fifty seconds, and then the worst was over.

The nearest point to tins place where complete destruction ruled rampant is the Eclipse Mill, where the superintendent, Henry Tregallas, was killed in the ruins of his house. When found by the terrified employes, his arms were locked around the almost inanimate form of Iris wife, both buried in the ilvhm, —she badly injured, nearly suiibcated, and he quite dead. Every building on the ground, save the frame mill, is lazed to the earth, and it is absolutely wonderful that none but Mr Tregallas fell a victim. The greatest loss of life and destruction of buildings occurred in the town of Lone' Pine, eighteen miles south of this place. Every st mo and adobe building, comprising about t re 3 fourths of that unfortunate place, was levelled to the earth. Owing, probably, to the soft, springy nature of the ground upon which it stands, the destruction of even the class of buildings above mentioned was more complete than elsewhere. Many of the dwellings, and. with one or two exceptions, every business house in the town, was built of adobes, and hence the great loss of life. There wore over sixty persons killed and wounded in that place alone. Fissures in the earth are numerous, and extend all over the valley. No hurried description can possibly do justice to the wonderful physical effects everywhere visible. Vast crevices have been opened, new lakes formed, ground sinks of from ten inches to twenty feet, and covering acre after acre ; cricks extending miles, the river partially dammed and turned, and the foot-hills are in places rent with w ide cracks.

[From the Sau ' >icgo Union ] This earthquake, which was felt over so large a portion of the State, appears to have had its centre along the western base of the Inyo mountains. Its effects were terrific. The whole country in the Cerro Gordo district was convulsed ; the earth opened for a distance of Mo miles, leaving a chasm from three inches to forty feet in width, and immense masses of rock were detached from the mountain sides. Over six hundred shocks, it, is said, occurred within the 48 hours. This was certainly the most violent earthquake of which wo have any account in the history of California. That at San Juan Capistrano, in 1812, caused greater loss of life, but the people killed were all in the Mission church, which was the only building in the place that received any injury, and that injury was attributed more to the imperfect construction of the church than to the severity of the e irthquake.