AN ALARMING EARTHQUAKE.

STAMBOUL IN RUINS. SCENES OF HORROR. Three shocks of earthquake, of a severity such as has not been experienced within the memory of living man, were felt at Constantinople shortly after noon on July 10. At 12.20 p.m. the inhabitants were startled by a dull roar accompanied by a quivering of the earth's surface, and occasional crashes as of > thunder. This was followed by violent shocks in rapid succession which rocked the most massive buildings to their very foundation?, and produced the most indescribable panic j throughout the town. i

Viewed from the heights of Perm, Stamboul presented an extraordinary spectacle. The whole city was enveloped in a dense cloud of dust, which increased in volume towards the north-western portion of Stamboal, in the neighbourhood of the Adrianeple Gate. At the first note of alarm all the occupants of the houses in Pera and Galata precipitated themselves into the streets in iihe wildest terror and confusion. To add to the tumult, in many of the streets the cab-horses took fright and ran away, their drivers either having been thrown from the box by the violence of the earthquake or having left it and joined in the general stampede. Men ran wildly hither and thither with no apparent object, but merely pervaded with an overpowering sense of insecurity and giving away completely to panic. In a very short space of time all the open spaces in Pera were crowded with a PANIC-STRICKEN MOB of men, women, and children; and even when the gradually diminishing force of the shocks led one to suppose that the force of the earthquake had spent itself, such was the horror caused by the violence of the earlier shocks —especially the second—that the stampede continued throughout the afternoon, and almost every house in Pera was deserted by about two o'clock. The damage done in Pera is comparatively insignificant, and no loss of life is so far reported. In Galata, which is mainly inhabited by Levantines, Greeks, and Armenians, the panic was, if possible, greater than in Pera. The effect, however, was not so trying to the onlooker, owing to the fact that the proportion of women was smaller, Galata being the business quarter of the town. In Pera the unearthly shrieks of the women chilled one's very marrow, and shook the nerves of the strongest men, even of those who were least impressed by the earthquake. The stampede in Galata was directed mainly towards the bridge joining that place with Stamboul; there it was met by a torrent of human beirgs rushing in terror in the opposite direction, and the result was pandemonium. RESIGNATION OF THE MOSLEMS. A little later a new rush invaded the firidgepeople trying to get to the landingstages of the steamers plying between the town and the Bosphorus and I'rinces' Islands,, some fleeing for safety from what they regarded as the doomed city, others in a fever of anxiety as to the welfare of their families inhabiting the various summer resorts. In Stamboul the shocks were very severe, and numbers of buildings are destroyed,, or will have to be pulled down. There, however, the stern fatalism of the Moslems stood them in good stead, and they regarded with scornful wonder the terror of their Christian neighbours.' " Was the God of the Christians then indeed less powerful than the God of Mohammed J" The earthquake began just after the hour of the mid-day prayer or " Kan,"andthe Muezzin* were in some cases actually calling the faithful to prayer at the moment of the first shock. The cry of the Muezzin was still ringing in their oars, "God is great," and they waited with awe and resignation to see what the Alsaighty had in store for them. In Galata, the minaret of a masque in the neigboorheod of the Custom House was thrown down and the Muezzin was killed, the falling stones also crushing through the roof of a neighbouring khan and kiilinsr two men. Immediately on the opposite side of the Golden Horn, the minaret of a mosque in the neighbourhood of Sirkedji Iskelessi, where is situated the railway terminus, was thrown down. In this case, however, the Muezzin escaped, being thrown (in to the dome of the mosque itself. On walking through Stamboul one was struck by the havoc that has been wrought by the earthquake, no less than by the composure displayed by the Mussulman population. Almost immediately after tiae earthquake they returned to their ordinary avocations, whilst in Peia and Galata, even on the day following the earthquake, all the shop? were shut, and the streets to a great extent desertedTHE GARDENS AT SIGHT. The scene in the municipal gardens of the Petite Champa and Taxim at nightfall on Tuesday was beyond description. Both gardens were densely packed with people lying down, sitting, and even standing, prepared to pass the night in the greatest possible discomfort, rather than face the unknown terrors of a night in their bouses with the possibility of a repetition of the morning's shocks. Some had brought with them bed and bedding, others improvised beds by appropriating two or three chairs and placing a mattress upow them. Others, again, were utterly unprovided with anything but the clothes in which they stood. The gardens looked like the open squares of a beleaguered city, and the effect in the fading daylight was horribly weird. Scarcely a house in Stamboul escaped unscathed, and many families found themselves without a roof over their heads on Tuesday night. The Grand Bazaar has been to a great extent wrecked, and it is feared that there has been considerable loss of life. The Bazaar, as many readers know, is a large covered market, covering several acres of ground, with a vaulted roof of masonry. This roof has collapsed in many places, and it will be some time before the rubbish has been cleared away sufficiently to enable one to ascertain with accuracy the number of people buried in the ruins. In the meantime the place is guarded by a cordon of police to prevent robbery, many of the shops having been left quite open by their owners in their hurry to escape. The traders in the bazaar are chiefly Jews and Armenians, but even their love of this world's goods melted away, and men who would haggle for hours over a penny, forsook all and fled at the first shock of the earthquake. EXTENT 01" THE DAMAGE. Of the better known buildings in Stamboul, one of those which have suffered considerably is the Scraskierate, or Ministry of War, but it would be impossible to enumerate all. The older monuments of the city have escaped with surprisingly little damage. The mosque of St. Sophia has no damage to speak of, so far as can be at present ascertained. In the same district the church of St. Irene was only very slightly damaged. In this church, now used as an armoury, was a party of sightseers composed of the Russian Ambassador and his staff and others. At the first shock His Excellency realised that he was in the presence of: aPo wer greater than that from which M. de Nelidoff received his credentials, and he hastily left the building', followed by all his party. The old , walls have suffered considerably, both on the fiea and on the landward side. In the region of the Adrianople gate many houses have collapsed, and the gate itself is seriously damaged. The mosque Kahrie Bjami is also damaged. The minaret has been overthrown, and one of the personnel of the mosque is reported missing. As one advances iu the direction of San Stefano the damage done by the earthquake seems to increase. ' At San Stefano itself hardly a house has escaped entirely, and many are reduced to ruins. There can be no doubt that if the same class of houses existed ab San Stefacc i.b are to be found in Constantinople the loss of life would have been very great. DESTRUCTION By THE SKA. The tea receded for several feet, and the returning wave did a good deal of minor damage to bath-houses and such. like. Crossing the Marmora to Princes'lsland the same havoc is everywhere to be observed. Prinkipo under ordinary circumstances looks more like » European watering-place . than any other suburb of Constantinople; but . now, on all sides, one sees nothing but debris and rubbish. The island of Oxia, the most westerly of the group, has partially subsided, the conformation of the island having been completely changed by the cataclysm. All the islands have suffered severely. Prom all parts of Asia Minor reports of disaster continue to come in. : On the Bosphorus the earthquake was not so . severely felt, though there was a good deal os alarm at first. The panic nay now be |

' said to have subsided, though many people still refuse to return to their houses. The damage to property in Constantinople is estimated by competent judges to amount to £16,000,000. Shocks continue to be felt, but are so slight as to be almost imperceptible. Itis now stilted .that the centre of the siesmic disturbance is in the Sea of Marmora at some point between Jalora on the Asiatic side and the village of San Stefano on the European coast. Fears are expressed that the crowding together of people camping in gardens and public squares will engender an epidemic.