We announced in one of our recent numbers the voleano of Asama Yana was shawm activity, and that the inhabitants cinity were in dread of an eruption. This fear has not, at least up to the present time, ed, but in its place the inhabitants of this neighbourhood ha subjected to the most severe earthqu: has occurred in Japan since the 1 one of 1855, which forms a landmark in the modern history of this country from the wide amount of damage done and the great loss of life which resulted. There is but little doubt earth qui been unpleasantly frequent in number f more than ordinary severity, which ai working in the earth find a vent, tempted to wish that one of th Id break out into for the locally destruction in th mediate neighbourhood might be gros is questionable whether it woul wide-spr ry and caused by another earthquake of equal ity to that of 1855. Fortunately in that of though the shock was hea Europe by the next icle— far as is yet' known—truction being confined mild shook, by en pooifieneth A morning (the 220d Feb), slumberer aroused by a premonitory but comparative:
heavy one, in the midd the crash of falling chin: of furniture, &c, The p: reached that stage,—vvas intense, and people been seen flying to the doors of \itations, and he airiest of drapery. An inter-of about thirty seconds elapsed, and another but less violent shock occurred, after which Mother Earth ags rik to repes and left the bewildered inhabit: spect damages to household good: seek such to obtain lished &o., of these very wi pleasant phoneme From the nati per the we learn The first shock took place at and lasted fourteen seconds was at Oh. 50m. 19s., and I sonds, whi lasted only Of these the second one was, by far the heaviest. "rhe jograph showed that the shock was in a N.N.W. and 8.S.E. direction the force of the shock was regi deg Phe scene of the greatest damage is the Bluff, but a narrow strip, the eastern end of the Settlement bordering the Creek, has also suffered severely. On the bluff it is difficult to discover a house which has not suffered to some extent, although there area few such. A walk around the road shows a melancholy panorama of fallen and twisted chimneys, tiles which have slid into the road from unroofed houses, walls cracked, and cases partly fallen, exposing the wooden frames work of the houses, &°., &¢. Nor does the external view alone show the real extent of the damage, In many cases houses which have apparently suffered but little, upon a more particular examination show a large amount eral injury, caused by fallen chimneys been irretrievably rui and curios broken or injure: cases cracks are plainly visible in the ground in different portions of the Bluff. In the Settlement, the Grand Hotel has lost five stacks of chimneys, and a portion of tone facing of the inner wall of the hi ing has fallen, The side of a small house on No, 130 also been levelled, and No. 128 has suffered very considerably. It must be considered a very fortunate occurrence that in the midst of all this destruc i to life of limb has occurred more remarkable inasmuch 'a8 on the Bluff the chi crashed through the to rooms in which persons were ale ing; in one case, ® portion of the debris actually falling on the bed in which gen! tan was reposing, without injuring bim, Another danger was also added by the overturning of ko lamps, which were in most cases extinguished without further injury. One fire, however, occurred from this canto, Dut it was extingsiabed without doing much damage. Probably it is rather under than over the mark if we place the losses in Yokohama alone, incurred in the few moments of Sunday morning, at $50,000.
Phe Gasette says that with regard to the gin of the earthquake all that can be safely said at present is that it came from the northi= north-west, and probably originated in some of the old volcanic mountains lying in the neighbourhood of Numata, After collecting more data with regard to the directions observed at other places besides Tokio, we may perhaps fix this more accurately, but should this surmise prove to be true, then after the shock bad reached Tokio, it would still have some eight or ten miles of material to tray: before arriving at Yokohama, The moat trustworthy of the observations of time as given by Mr, Mallet for the same kind of rock correspond with considerable shock upon the surf and give it sit of 1,600 feot per secon Assuming, therefore, an 1,200 feet per second, here would, upon thi have trave the ten miles in 44 Tf, howe the shock came from a more westerly point say, for instance, from Asama-yama, ther the extra distance it would to' tray would be about four mil ich, at our rate of calculation, would delay its arrival about 17 seconds. From past observations mad Mr, Milne in Tokio, and Mr, Jat ott in Yokohama, " previous eartigu reached Tokio seconds before arriving at Yokohama, whilst another on) before coming 4 seconds we wish to localize these records of time observatic ins in Tokio of the commencement of the last shock are somewhat imperfect and contradic. tory, the result, no doubt, of the violence of the earthquake causing some discomposure to the observers,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.