THE EARTHQUAKE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1687, 1 March 1913, Page 10

THE EARTHQUAKE.

ALARMING TIME AT WESTPORT. A RESIDENTS IMPRESSIONS. Tho town clock indicated 12.40 p.m. on Saturday,- February ?2. Westport, with its one long street, was wrapped, in its usual lethargy. There might havo been fifty people visible, when boom! bang! Then the crash of falling crockery, bottles, plabeglass.' A thousand people hurriedly filled the street. Shops, offices, workrooms furnished their quota. Hysterical women, eobbing children, and blanched faces portrayed the tear of tho unknown. What had happened? Those indoors say tho walls swayed. Outside where I stood there was a vibration of tho earth. I know the undulatory earthquake, but, this was different. "Look out," shouted a bystander, "the post office is ooining down." It swayed. A boy riding a bicycle was thrown in the middle of the street, liis machine crashed against tho kcrbing. Excited denizens of buildings struggled in the exit doorways. People clustered together. A glance at shop windows showed the shopman's wares in troubled confusion. "Mine host" left his liotol to tho accompaniment of falling bottles, and great was the fall thereof. The crockery dealer heard the crash of his wares. Tho household goods of tho thrifty citizen clattered down from shelf and mantel, and the good wife's pickles and preserves added to the confusion- Supplementary horror was added in many homes by tho brick chimneys and cowls falling on tho iron roofs. A whip-liko action of terra Srma cast bricks in a shower to tho south-east. By 12.-15 wo were able to regain our composure. To be reminded every hour or so till Sunday afternoon by sullen booms from out the Tasmnn Sea that the struggle was still on. What occurred out there the ships may tell as they come home. It seemed as if tho ocean had come in contact with the internal fires. Terrific ex- I plosions they must have been. How .many , leagues away wo have yet to learn, but tho nmin shock nt 12.10 sounded as at our doors. The oldest inhabitant is beaten, and the latest arrival is spreading his valuables on tho floor. : The river rapidly becamo discoloured from tho landslips in tho gorge. Tho sea on tho coast tremored, hesitated, ebbed, and flowed. Fan slept soundly during that sight.