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National Geographic : 1907 May
Contents
ECHOES OF THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTH QUAKE BY ROBERT E. C. STEARNS, OF Los ANGELES DURING the excitement incident to the San Francisco earth quake various rumors were in the air for several days, some without the slightest foundation, others exaggerations of some comparatively trifling fact, re peated from mouth to mouth, magnified and distorted with each repetition. As an illustration, it was stated that the well known Cliff House "was thrown into the sea and not a vestige left," when in fact it was damaged to the extent of a few hun dred dollars. In the following October we read of the April quake that observers in many places on the coast "noticed geysers of heated liquids ejected high out of the horizon line." It is not altogether improbable that oceanic or suboceanic disturbances caused by seismic or vol canic action may have occurred, but my efforts to trace to a definite source the statement referred to have been unsuc cessful. This, like the Cliff House rumor, may be due to an overheated imagina tion. The keeper of the Point Pinos Light house Station, near Monterey, writes: "I did not see or hear of any disturbance of the sea at the time of the earthquake of April 18, other than that persons on board a ship entering the harbor sup posed they had struck a rock." Captain McCollough, bar pilot, who was bringing the collier Wellington in from the sea on the morning of April 18, is quoted as follows by a San Francisco paper: "We were off Diablo,* in about * Point Diablo is on the northerly side of the entrance to San Francisco Bay, between Point Bonita (westward) and Lime Point (eastward), and just a trifle more than one statute mile from Fort Point, on the opposite shore. It rises sharply to 900 feet in about three-quar ters of a mile; has strong current rips close around it, and is the bete noire to all naviga tors.- DAVIDSON. fifty fathoms of water, when the earth quake shock shook us up. The Welling ton shivered and shook like a springless wagon on a corduroy road. The sensa tion at first was as if the big steamer was jumping from one gravel bed to another, and it seemed as if she would jar her in sides out. As the shaking gained in in tensity, it seemed as if she was blowing out boiler tubes, an explosion every sec ond. It was a terrifying experience, and none of the uncanniness was taken off by the fact that the sea was as smooth as glass and showed not a ripple when the shaking was at its worst." Since the earthquake the pilots have made extensive soundings on the bar and so far have found no changes in the depths. No sweeping or unusual wave occurred along the coast, at least none was mentioned in the papers at the time, though possibly there may have been some quite local movement of the sea at places along the shore of Mendocino and Humboldt counties. A high wave, it is stated, washed out two buildings at Moss Landing, in Mon terey Bay, and the shore at that point was reported to have sunk six feet. If so, it cannot properly be attributed, di rectly or indirectly, to oceanic disturb ance, but to limited local movement, being in line with the general north westerly and southwesterly trend, which included Hollister, Castroville, Salinas, and other near-by towns and villages in Monterey County, and southward to San Juan, in San Benito County, where the old adobe mission church of San Juan Bautista was seriously damaged. Of the effects of the earthquake on marine life, we have barely a scrap of information. The following is not with out interest: There are several parties of Japanese engaged in the Abalene (Hali-
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