THE DREADFUL EARTHQUAKE AT SCIO.

Auckland Star, Volume XII, Issue 3383, 31 May 1881, Page 3

THE DREADFUL EARTHQUAKE AT SCIO.

The ticene Visited by a "Time's'

Reporter.

4,000 dead and 50,000 Home. less.

LONDON, April IG,

A correspondent of the " Tinica " at Scio says :—I have vow made, from personal observation and with the help ol others, a pretty thorough canvass of the state of affairs throughout the isluml. Tlie toln! number of dead is scarcely less than 4001). although some allowance may l>e due to the fact that immediately after the disaster many persons crossed to the mainland, and some of those now reported dead may now be there. The villages on the south side of the island are all wrecked, hardly a s-ingle house being left standing, The centre of volcanic action seems to have been near Neita, overlooking Megalo bay, on the cast const, where 300 persons perished out of ;t population of 1,200. At Vounos 20' perished out of a population of GOO ; at Philatiil, GO out of 250; atKalamonti, 40 out of 1500; at Armalis, 30 out of COO; and Kiney, 130 out of 480. On the western side of the island at Mesta many houses fell, but nobody was killed. At Vesha threefourths of the buildings were wrecked, but only one person was killed. At Lethi 23 persons were killed out of 600, and at Argonimo 40 out of 400. At Annleatos 12 were killed ; this is the most northerly town on the west side, which suffered severely. Other towns were severely shaken, but aru not in ruins. The district of Scio nm\ the towns south-east of it suffered moH of all. Kalliinosia is simply a mass of ruins, and it is difficult to distinguish one house from another. I cannot conceive how any considerable number of the population escaped, but only 448 perished out of ISOO. The neighbouring vil'ages sutlered similarly ; seven of the principal ones, containing 8570 people, are believed to have lost 13:27. At least nine-tenths of the houses in the southern and south-western portions of the island must be rebuilt or repaired, the population now camping out, and there is great need of food and shelter. The northern part requires help, but to a less extent, those severely wounded being brought to Scio by men from the ships. The work ot clearing away the ruins bus begun here, but in the villages the people are still panic-strickcu. Little can be done as long as the shocks continue. Of 200 persons who perished in Tylopotomai, only sixty-five of the bodies have been recovered and a similar proportion in other villages. About 50,000 people are camped in the southern half oi the island and have nothiug but what they have on their backs. Progress has been made towards systematizing the relief organization. The people are further demoralized by the preaching of a foolish Gicek priest, who warns them all to flee as the islaud is about to be completely swallowed up. The Archbishop nnd Governor are seeking to allay the excitement, but many nre still emigrating to the maiuland, and adjacent islands. At Kallamasia, a German doctor who was in oae of the houses! at the time of the disaster relates that the first warning he had was seeing the dishes on the table fall on the floor. A few seconds later the walla fell outward. From this and similar stories I believe in this district the first shock was nearly vertical, followed immediately by horizontal vibrations.

ACCOUNTS BY EYK-WITNESti,

M. de Chivry, a Paiis wine merchant, who was travelling in Scio with his family at the time, says : The first shock was by far the most violent. The house oscillat-d from its very foundations ; the piano tumbled over against the window and a heavy clock was upset into the fireplace. A second shock brought the house down, crushing to death the four children and their mother, and breaking their father's arm. M. de Chivry with his nurse and an infant, parsed the ni«ht in the cemetery. The following morniDg he could find no trace of his house or of the street on which it had stood. He remembers being more deeply impressed with horror by the shrieks of the people and the bellowing of cattle than by the crash of falling walls and dull roar of the earth. His reason so far deserted him for a moment that he fancied thescresming inhabitant* wereendeavouring to kill him, but the sight of his child and the nurse restored his mental balance.

EXPERIENCE OF A GREEK PHOTOGRAPHER,

A correspondent writes from Smyrna : — A lireek photographer who was at Soio when the earthquake occurred, .and who is now here, thus describes hU experiences : He had finished dinner, and was without his coat, just about to take a nap, when hearing an awful booming sound, and feelinn: the house, which wa« one story hisjh, beginning to shake, he placed himseli in a doorway. The walla came down, and thu roof, which was a ilat terrace, opened, and through the (loud of dust which rose ho dimly saw the open heaveus above. Disengaging himself from the stones aud mortar, which reached nearly to his knees, he clambered up on to the top of the ruins of his own dwelling. No sooner had he emerged than a girl called to him, " Come, sir, do come, and help me save my mother." "But where is my own servant?" he said, and he looked round in vain for his servant lad, a young Armenian, whom he had seen a minute before in the garden. Yielding, however, to the entreaties of the girl, who rushed in over the ruin 3of the next house, he followed her, and saw the mother with her feet fastened down, her head covered with dust and dirt, and feebly moving her hand in the effort to rise. Telling the girl to take her mother's hand, he diseDgaged the feet, and together they dragged her out, and washing her face revealed frightful bruises. While waiting upon her a father came up with his two children, one of which was dead and the other apparently so, though a little cold water dashed on his face brought him to his senses. All this happened in ten minutes from the first shock. A second booming sound was heard, and the downfall of other houses and walls, tottering in consequence of the first shock, was seen. Our narrator made his way to the Quarantine Office, running up and down over ruins of houses piled in the street, meeting only one refugee like himself, Here he remained some little time, until about three o'clock a third shock occured, when he with some others got a boatman to take him on board a small steamer then in the roadstead. While in the oteamer the awful roaring continued, and for a few minutes a cloud of smoke burst from the slope at the back of the town and then ceased. The captain of a Greek tug which was also preparing to leave happened to be at the Customhouse, He describas the buildings as veering first one side and then the other, and then he felt a violent, upheaving of the ground. He ran towards the sea, and in passing saw a balcony fall from a house and kill a woman and child who were running away. Heavy iron pipes which were lying at the Custom-house were knocked against each other by the vibrations of the heaving ground. Thick clouds of dust rose from the ruins, from out of which could be heard cries for help—"Save me, save me; 1 am not dead." Those who succeeded in getting clear ran towards the seashore, jumping in boats and small craft which were near. Other? da»hed down the road leadin? to the outskirts, scrambling over stones and ruins, from which shrieks were still proceeding, and passing on the way bodies of the wounded and dying.