An earthquake' of a rather serious nature. alarmed the inhabitants about 7 p.m. on December 16. The vibrations lasted for several minutes. Doors and windows shook and rattle ed, and in some places walls fell down, but no loss of life occurred. In the afternoon there was a terrific storm of wind blowing in all directions, the.dust rising in great whirls, high in the air. It was my misfortune to be on a journey when the storm arose. We were travelling through one of the mountain passes to the city of Huangyuen Dense clouds of dust swept around and over us, So that we could not even see the beasts on which we were riding, and the tiny pebbles pelted our faces with venom, till our eyes stung with pain. In the evening a few of us were sitting chatting on the kavig, when it began to sway and we hardly had realized what it was before we swayed again until it became almost like a rocking, then another pause, and a third rocking more serious than the other two. Everything seemed to be shaking} so we got. down from the kang to go to the door, only to feel very uncomfortable, like sea-sickness and a difficulty in getting to the door, owing to the swaying.
The Chinese and Moslems were both alarmed, the former praying to their gods, and having a procession through the streets the following morning, whereas the latter cried unto Allah in their terror, thinking that the earth was about to open and swallow them up, so prayed that Allah would have merey on them, and take them up to Himself. The following Sunday crowds attended the Sunday services. The last serious earthquake here was in 1897 but this one lasted longer.
We hear there has been much loss.of life in and around Lanchow, the capital, and that all telegraphic communication has been cut off owing to collapse of poles. The earthquake seems to have alarmed the conscience of one individual here who has been making a Pile of money the last few years, for the following morning he gave away strings of 500 cash each to a large number of poor people.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.