The Japan Mait publishes translations from the vernacular newspapers deseribin; the ravages of the seismic wave, the general results of which have been reported by telegram. The Nichi Nichi Shimbun's special correspondent reports. as. follows from Kamaishi, under date the 19th ult.:—
Kamaishi was a little sea-side town of 1,105 houses and 6,529 inhabitants. It faces direct towards the Pacific Ocean, and a precipitous hill stands just behind it. When, at about half past 8 on the evening of the' 15th instant, huge seismic waves over 70 ft. high were observed in the offing, those that espied them at a distance took them for a huge school of whales. The prospect of a valuable catch was quickly changed into terrified horror when it was perceived what the huge black elevations on the surface of the sea really meant. In less than a quarter of an hour the whole town was literally wiped out of existence, 953 dwelling-houses being swept away, and 4,985 persons done to a horrible death, over 500 also being injured more or less severely. Buildings not used for purposes of habitat tion were carried out to sea, to the number of 867, and 176 ships and boats were lifted and lodged on the hills or borne out to the ocean.
The calamity was equally terrific in the villages on the shores of Futaishi Bay, some 5 miles north of Kamaishi. In the village of the same name, that had a population of 790 souls, only 100 escaped death, while of hundreds of houses all Dut two were carried away or wrecked. The record of the disaster in the town of Yamada is even worse, through relatively smaller. The town had 805 houses and 4,387 inhabitants, and of the latter over a thousand were killed, while those that had narrowly escaped drowning, fell victims to other even more appalling fate. Suffer-from hunger and cold, they kindled fires some store houses that were left standing, but owing to some carelessness, the flames were communicated to the woodwork of one of the buildings and more than 40 people, already half dead with starvation and exhaustion, were burned to death. At Toni—out of 269 houses, 250 were washed away, and out of 1,206 people, 1,103 were drowned. Even among the 103 survivors 2 received more or less serious injuries.
The Kokwmin's special correspondent, writing from Okachi, stys that the eight goalers that survived the calamity were more or less severely hurt; that 14 prisoners were missing, of whom two had been subsequently discovered, having attempted to fly. The same journal alleges that the casualties to life and property in the three Prefectures are as follows, according to investigations carried up to the 2nd inst.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.