The Mountains Have An Unusual Quantity Of Earth And Vegetable
Mould Spread Over Them.
Even on the steepest slopes there is
everywhere a covering of clays and sands, and generally a good
thickness of vegetable soil.
It is this which perhaps contributes
to the uniform luxuriance of the forest, and delays the
appearance of that sub-alpine vegetation which depends almost as
much on the abundance of rocky and exposed surfaces as on
difference of climate. At a much lower elevation on Mount Ophir
in Malacca, Dacrydiums and Rhododendrons with abundance of
Nepenthes, ferns, and terrestrial orchids suddenly took the place
of the lofty forest; but this was plainly due to the occurrence
of an extensive slope of bare, granitic rock at an elevation of
less than 3,000 feet. The quantity of vegetable soil, and also of
loose sands and clays, resting on steep slopes, hill-tops and the
sides of ravines, is a curious and important phenomenon. It may
be due in part to constant, slight earthquake shocks facilitating
the disintegration of rock; but, would also seem to indicate that
the country has been long exposed to gentle atmospheric action,
and that its elevation has been exceedingly slow and continuous.
During my stay at Rurukan, my curiosity was satisfied by
experiencing a pretty sharp earthquake-shock. On the evening of
June 29th, at a quarter after eight, as I was sitting reading,
the house began shaking with a very gentle, but rapidly
increasing motion. I sat still enjoying the novel sensation for
some seconds; but in less than half a minute it became strong
enough to shake me in my chair, and to make the house visibly
rock about, and creak and crack as if it would fall to pieces.
Then began a cry throughout the village of "Tana goyang! tana
goyang! "(Earthquake! earthquake!) Everybody rushed out of their
houses - women screamed and children cried - and I thought it
prudent to go out too. On getting up, I found my head giddy and
my steps unsteady, and could hardly walk without falling. The
shock continued about a minute, during which time I felt as if I
had been turned round and round, and was almost seasick. Going
into the house again, I found a lamp and a bottle of arrack
upset. The tumbler which formed the lamp had been thrown out of
the saucer in which it had stood. The shock appeared to be nearly
vertical, rapid, vibratory, and jerking. It was sufficient, I
have no doubt, to have thrown down brick, chimneys, 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.
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