At Length The Evening Got Very Cold, And I Became Very Sleepy,
And Determined To Turn In; Leaving Orders To My Boys, Who Slept
Nearer The Door, To Wake Me In Case The House Was In Danger Of
Falling.
But I miscalculated my apathy, for I could not sleep
much.
The shocks continued at intervals of half an hour or an
hour all night, just strong enough to wake me thoroughly each
time and keep me on the alert, ready to jump up in case of danger.
I was therefore very glad when morning came. Most of the
inhabitants had not been to bed at all, and some had stayed out
of doors all night. For the next two days and nights shocks still
continued at short intervals, and several times a day for a week,
showing that there was some very extensive disturbance beneath
our portion of the earth's crust. How vast the forces at work
really are can only be properly appreciated when, after feeling
their effects, we look abroad over the wide expanse of hill and
valley, plain and mountain, and thus realize in a slight degree
the immense mass of matter heaved and shaken. The sensation
produced by an earthquake is never to be forgotten. We feel
ourselves in the grasp of a power to which the wildest fury of
the winds and waves are as nothing; yet the effect is more a
thrill of awe than the terror which the more boisterous war of
the elements produces.
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