In forwarding the following letter descriptive of the _earthquake - of December 16, our own correspondent writes:—There are many towns and villages from which news has not come through and we cannot tell yet what has happened to them. The disaster has been very great and widespread in Kansu and a great many lives have been lost. We cannot get any news from Lanchowfu, as all communications are cut owing to the caving-in of the mountains and the great chasms all over the country. The main road to Lanchowfu has been completely swept away'; nothing but gaping chasms are to be found.
The following is the description above-referred to:—
Now to the story which I want you friends down there to know. On Thursday evening, Decembe~ 16, at 7.25 o'clock, this old place was shaken as if it were nothing. That first shock Jasted exactly seven minutes. We were in a room reading and——and the children were across the yard. One of the children was asleep. When the quake came I ran immediately across to where she was and grabbed hold of her and got out of doors. When we got outside Miss——called over, "If you are alive over there, then please come over here." We, of course, went over to her yard and found her and all the school girls. in the back yard, It was bitterly cold, so after a few minutes I had to go in and get. some more blankets and clothes with which to cover the little ones. We remained outside about an hour. We never thought of retiring that night, to be sure. But we want home again and had a little prayer meeting, and then settled ourselves in the sitting room of the ssu-tsi, where we are living, with the children's beds there, too, in case of another severe quake we could get hold of them quickly. From 7.25 o'clock that night to 6.30 o'clock Friday morning we counted 35 distinct shocks. They were tremors, some of which were stronger than others. During Friday we had several, and that night we did not retire, either.
Thursday night, after the first shock, I went out on the street across the way to see a house which had come down upon its occupants. Two women were lying on their kang and were just in the act of extricating themselves from all the debris which had accumulated upon and around them. They came out unseatched. But their home was in ruins. It was; pitiable to see them and many others thus deprived of shelter and warmth on such a cold night.
Several temple walls also came down. The watch house at the north gate fell on four soldiers and killed them: One little girl of nine was killed on the main street by a roof falling on her. The officials estimate that 17 were killed in the city and about the somme in the East Suburb. Many houses, of course, fel].
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.