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.
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