Chapter I: Preface

Whatever be the ideas of the public upon a glance at the title page of this work, it is not intended to pander to the morbid desire for the sensational or horrible, characteristic of weak minds. This volume is not a literary morgue.

Mankind is constantly astonished by reports of mishaps and disasters of manifold character, when there is seldom room for astonishment. A large proportion of the calamities reported from day to day are directly due to the haste, greed, and heedlessness of man himself, and need no comment.

But there is a large class of disasters, due solely to meteorological or geological conditions, which surpass all others in magnitude and appalling destruction. In such cases men insist on prating about “mysterious visitations,” as though these occurrences were subject to the dominion of no law. To an examination of such is this book devoted.

When in school, the writer was often struck by the persistence with which even the most diligent students would call upon the teachers of physics and chemistry to suspend the recitation and devote the time to illustrative experiments. Physical Geography was constantly pronounced “very dry,” because of the scarcity of opportunities for illustration.

The writer has endeavored to present in a form acceptable to the popular palate the general principles of the storm and earthquake so far as they are understood: and numerous narratives of great disturbances have been inserted that a clearer conception of the magnitude of these agencies and their relative importance may be attained by the reader.

Much care has been spent in “steering between Scylla and Charybdis.” While it has been designed to avoid merely scientific data, there has been the equally delicate task of avoiding prolix narration and mere sensational tales. It is hoped that the result will be useful and interesting.

If the book shall lead the reader to higher views of the reign of inexorable law in nature, and to a profounder reverence for the Author of Law and his works, the labor of its compilation will not have been spent in vain.

A. H. GODBEY.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

MYTHS OF THE WINDS.

PAGE.

Old Greek fancies--Their modern traces--Man seeking mysteries--Personifications--The “air-mothers” 17

CHAPTER II.

CONSTANT WINDS.

Comparative climate--Expansive force of heat--Illustrations--The trade-winds--Effect of the earth’s rotation--Return currents and calms 26

CHAPTER III.

PERIODIC WINDS.

Modified trade winds--The monsoons--Local winds--Sea and land breezes--The simoom: its terrible effects--The khamsin, and similar winds--Moisture in the air: its effects--Rain and hail--Clouds: their varieties--Mountain winds 34

CHAPTER IV.

TORNADOES AND CYCLONES.

Unheeded law--Peculiarities of storms--Cyclonic storms--Theoretical Illustrations--A “cyclone hot-bed"--Traveling of a cyclone--Its curves in accordance with law--Features of the cyclone’s path--Great cyclone of August, 1888--The planetary equinox theory--Objections to it--Safe predictions--Sun-spots--Mysterious providences 48

CHAPTER V.

THE LOUISVILLE TORNADO.

Perspective of news--Amusing conceits--Distress at the door--The tornado--Warning of the Signal Service--The storm strikes Louisville--Its course--Wreck of Falls City Hall--Rescuing the victims--Fire breaks out--Personal narratives--At the Union Depot 65

CHAPTER VI.

INCIDENTS OF THE TORNADO.

The poor to be remembered--Peddlers, publicans and sinners--The freaks of “Providence"--Deaths in the storm remarkably few--Wonderful escapes--Explosive effects of confined air--Strange pranks of the wind--The storm at Parkland--At Jeffersonville--The mammon worshiper--Generosity and independence 87

CHAPTER VII.

OTHER TORNADOES.

The tornado in East Kansas--In Southeast Missouri--Great damage in Illinois--Water-spout at Metropolis--Many distinct whirlwinds--Effect of forest and prairie fires--Tornado of Charleston, 1761--Tornadoes at Natchez, 1840 and 1842--The Marshfield storm, 1880--Remarkably small loss of life in tornadoes--Tornadoes in foreign lands 114

CHAPTER VIII.

TROPICAL CYCLONES.

Cyclones on our eastern borders--The Nova Scotia cyclone--St. Thomas cyclone and earthquake, 1837--Cyclone of 1867--Barbadoes storm, 1831--Great storm of 1780--Terrible cyclones and storm waves of India--Typhoons in the China seas 141

CHAPTER IX.

PERILS OF THE SEA.

Songs of the sea--The ocean always admired--Its treasures and dangers--Man’s greed a source of disaster--Criminal disregard of life--Terrible fatalities in leaky ships--The Arctic seas--The ship _Rufus_ 159

CHAPTER X.

LIFE-SAVING MEASURES.

Great storm of 1703--Humaneness and inhumanity--Diabolical wreckers--Hovellers--Desperate struggles without a life-boat illustrated by Dickens--The life-boat invented--Its usefulness--Lighthouses and fog-bells 179

CHAPTER XI.

GREAT SAMOAN HURRICANE.

Germany and Samoa--Naboth’s vineyard--War breaks out--The assembled navy--Situation of the harbor--The hurricane--Fears of the natives--Vessels dragging anchors--Sudden wreck of the _Eber_--Magnanimous natives--The _Adler_ overturned--Struggle of the _Nipsic_--Fouled by the _Olga_, and run ashore--Crew rescued by the natives--The _Vandalia_ helpless--Bold feat of the _Calliope_ cheered--_Vandalia_ stranded--Many Drowned--At the last gasp--The _Trenton_ drifts upon them--Defiance of the storm--The flag triumphant 195

CHAPTER XII.

ELECTRIC STORMS.

Byron’s fire--Myths of the lightning--Causes of thunder storms--Strange freaks of the lightning--Numerous fatalities--Some curious cases--A lightning stroke a Divine favor--Thunder--Peculiar incidents--Lightning little to be feared--Foolish precautions--A “dysentery conductor” wanted--St. Elmo’s fire--Electric halos--Their part in history--The aurora--Popular myths--Aurora described 220

CHAPTER XIII.

RAIN, HAIL AND SNOW.

Clouds and cloud shapes--The storm changes national destinies--Cloud halos--Specter of the Brocken--The “beautiful rain"--Amount of rainfall--Snow--Its ravages--Remarkable showers of hail--Prodigies 246

CHAPTER XIV.

FLOODS IN THE SOUTH.

Rivers a universal problem--Character of the Mississippi--Failure of the levee system--The building of levees--Three great sections--Damage of overflows--Fighting for the levee--Storm on the river--Scene at a crevasse--The flood in the rural districts--In the city--Closing a crevasse--Refugees on the levee--Crooked streams 261

CHAPTER XV.

THE FLOOD OF 1890.

Floods of other years--Warning of the Signal Service--The water rising--At Greenville, Mississippi--The fight for the Morganza line--The waters win--Other crevasses--Extent of the damage--Objections to levees--Levees versus outlets--Terrible floods in China--A proposed outlet--Reflection on present policy 296

CHAPTER XVI.

THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD.

The dam system of India--American “cheap goods and haste"--The Little Conemaugh Valley--Heavy rains--Johnstown flooded--The artificial lake--A poor dam--No uneasiness--How the water would move--The dam breaks--Terrible rush of the flood--An engine chased--A warning whistle--Locomotives hurled about like toys--Flying for life--Escapes and losses 324

CHAPTER XVII.

INCIDENTS AT JOHNSTOWN.

Suddenness of the flood--It divides--A chaotic scene--Fire breaks out--Faith of the perishing--Narratives: the Hulbert House; Rev. D. M. Miller’s story; Mr. Calliver’s escape; Dr. Beale and family--Morning: the stricken multitude; Mr. Rose’s narrative; Talmage’s letter; the grief of the survivors 343

CHAPTER XVIII.

RELIEF MEASURES.

The people in want--Johnstown after the flood--Human ghouls--Relic hunters--Temporary government--A dictatorship--Hospitals and morgues--Prompt response of the public--Aid from various cities--Losses by the flood 367

CHAPTER XIX.

FAMINE AND PESTILENCE.

Signs and omens--Natural causes--Bengal famine of 1866--Relief Measures--Results--Pestilence and contagion--Black death--Its frequent ravages--Fright--A romance of Florence 384

CHAPTER XX.

THE VOLCANO.

Erroneous views--Myths--Active principle in volcanoes--Atmospheric pressure--Rain at eruptions--Lava, pumice, ashes and tufa--Different phases of action--Stromboli, the “lighthouse"--Lava bubbles--Thrilling adventure--Lost!--Theory of a molten earth--Objections to it--The earth cools slowly--Subsidence and chemical action--Distribution of volcanoes--Their work and forms 394

CHAPTER XXI.

GREAT ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS.

Pompeii long buried--Excavations begun--A hermetically sealed city--Scenes in the town--Pliny’s story--Hundreds stifled--Finding the bodies--Subsequent eruptions--Notable convulsion of 1538--The eruption of 1531, 1737 and 1793--Recent observations 421

CHAPTER XXII.

OTHER GREAT ERUPTIONS.

Destruction of Sodom--Arguments--The pitch lake of Trinidad--Ætna: eruption of 1669--Thousands perish--Catania destroyed--Other outbreaks--Iceland: Mt. Hecla--Tremendous eruption of Skaptar Jokul--One-fifth of the people perish--Millions of cubic yards of lava--Disturbances in the sea--Jorullo: a mountain made in a night--Fearful outburst of Sumbawa--Twenty-six people out of twelve thousand escape--Explosions heard nine hundred miles--Other Malaysian volcanoes--Geysers--Terrible eruption of Cosequina--Heard one thousand miles--Eruptions in South America--Force required to send out lava--In the Sandwich Islands--Krakatoa: the greatest eruption in history--A chorus of volcanoes--Awful destruction--Perceived around the world--Unparalleled sea wave 440

CHAPTER XXIII.

EARTHQUAKES.

Myths of the earthquake--Ancient theories--Modern research--Earthquakes and volcanic agency--Speed of a shock--The atmospheric theory--Earthquakes at particular seasons--The “planetary influence” theory--Character of motions 481

CHAPTER XXIV.

EUROPEAN EARTHQUAKES.

Legends of the flood--Sparta Destroyed--Bura and Helice engulfed--Numerous convulsions in Asia Minor--Antioch repeatedly destroyed--North Africa suffers--Calabrian earthquake of 1693--A tremendous convulsion in 1783--Immense chasms--People swallowed up--Great landslides--Terrible catastrophe at Scylla--Ruffians amid the wreck--The great Lisbon earthquake--Its vast extent--Awful destruction--Earthquake at Chio--In Switzerland--In Ischia--Distressing scenes in the ruins--Disastrous shocks in Spain 496

CHAPTER XXV.

EARTHQUAKES IN THE UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND.

All nature uneasy--The terrifying character of an earthquake--Signs and wonders--“El Gran Ruido,” of Guanajuato--Frequency of earthquakes--Earthquake in New England, 1638--A second in 1663--Shock of 1727--Great convulsions of 1755--Damage and great alarm at Boston--“The end of the world!"--Great disturbance in the Mississippi Valley, 1811--Strange feats--The Charleston earthquake--Numerous English earthquakes--Comparatively small loss of life 535

CHAPTER XXVI.

EARTHQUAKES IN TROPICAL AMERICA.

Shocks in Asia: lack of reliable information--The Andes region--Great earthquake of Riobamba--Humboldt’s description--Numerous shocks in Venezuela--Catastrophe of Caracas--Effect on the survivors--Frequent convulsions at San Salvador--Total destruction in 1854--Ruffians on the scene--Sudden disaster of Mendoza--Touching incidents--Faithful dogs--Shocks in Peru and gigantic sea wave--Numerous great shocks--The end of all things--The last man 563

CHAPTER XXVII.

PREDICTION AND PREVENTION.

Futile efforts to control the future--Law neglected for superstition--Pretentious prophets--Humbugs--Laws of weather changes--Actions of animals--Methods for producing rain suggested--Earthquake indicators--A force beyond control--Possibilities 589