THE EARTHQUAKE JAPAN.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 218, 15 September 1888, Page 5

THE EARTHQUAKE JAPAN.

AN APPALLING DISASTER. \ At an early hour on July 15th a terrible disaster took place at Wakamatsu, Fukush&ha Prefecture; Japarii when the mountain known as Bandaizan burst forth into flame.' PThis was followed by a long-series of earthquake shocks and fierce showers of ddbris that continued for hours. The following account' o* the terrible calamity was furnished the J^Lainichi Shimbun by an occasional correspondent, on July 18th:— : : ,;., ■ ';".,:,.:,/,,, ■: : , ..■. ' A GRAPHIC ACCOUNT: .A

On the 15bh iiisb. at 7.25 in the morning, the; moment the shock of earthquake occurred, I heard a loud sound like thunder, andrunningout of jny-hou^el fiaw a terrible sceno. 1 soon determined it must be an eruption of Bandaizan, and immediately Btarted, foiv? that--place,; accompanied, by a friend and two servants. Proceeding about six English miles we^rrived at a village formerly called Oteratnura, and asi it was near noon }vq, rested at a tea-liouse;in ; thatj villagej where we met four wounded persons. One of these persons had beenhibori his head by a stone ejected from Bahdaizan,' and it was impossible to stop the blood that was streaming from this wound"; another had his right hand broken and two others were wounded in several places. Besides, the backs of. all these four were burned 'arid blackened by the sulphur, and "pieces of stone still remained in the wounds. From these wounded persons "we learned the number of the visitors to the' hot spring resorts on : Bandaizan to have been 250, of whom they i said only four escaped death. Leaving the - tea-house, when we had ascended •■the- mountain about' two; miles we found the ashes were still pouring; forth. The colour, of the- asheSi^vaS; dark: green, and when lighted they burned. The, higher we ascended the; mountain tho deeper the ashes became, and as we further ascended, two miles above, we met. some police and inhabitants of,, the neighbourhood parrying down two corpses. They stopped'us, on the ground that it would be dangerous to'ascend any futher, but despite their advice we : forced our way and at last 'reached near the top of the mountain, Where the hot spring resorts were, .situated,. To .our .surprise, howevery '.a hob: spring house;: and; a hut in a 'damaged condition were the. only objects >to bei seen! there, while .the hot spring resorts formerly.sieuated half way up tjie mountainare now top, ana all the places above the'hot spring resorts had been utterly demolished, Whon we looked around from this place ,we saw numerous upheavals of sand aa'd ashes, and of rock 3, like houses, in ft field called Akimotohara, where the numbers of the deacj1 /were, among other places, nutrterous, Of those who perished some had -botE -their hands and. feet cut off, \vhile others' wefe'lying under the huts, or- were buried by the sand and ashes • till the corpses presented a dark colour as ,' if they Had; been scorched (by gunpowder-, ( We also saw/ there, on tho topi of the mountaifi, pumerous corpses of ycimg men, but dicl nofe iaeeanyof old men and; women j Perhaps' when the eruption occurred the former escaped as far as they could, but the l^ttet^ haviric naturally been unable to ■ escape fast, >tqu Id haye been literally cut tQ pieces to guch an extent 'thab^their. corpses becaigif)itiyieiblej 'at ;}iad.been buried deop under the ashes and rocks. The place to which wo ac last ascended ;seeti|i?i"rt)Ofe tt>' have. ( been visited By;the inhabitants we mot while ascending the mountain There' were no, '• footprints, and the ashes tbeing heaped up from prie to two or ;ihrwvfe# in neight; it was with

B^fttdi^uitytil&i we Waited o>tts Wfafld fcioipfooaediflgiw# suddenly eanieupba & orovioe'oi ssmaiour on fiyd feat wide whiob esoapod our noblao, and 1 oonaetjuently fell into the same to a dept^ of' some twelve feet, bub fortunately escaped without injury1. We tried to approaoh tho crater from wbioh the eruptions emanated, but tho earth fell around was so burned and tho sulphur; Smell so strong and obnoxious, that we could nob get near the place. The number of persons wounded, who are now .under; medical attendaiicejcia 18, of whom 6 .are seriously ) and 12 slightly wounded; the total number ■of the population I.damaged iby the elate -catastrophe, either directly' or> indirectly, >is 2^47,; of whom 763 are direct .sufferers,; and- over i 1,980 are indirectly injured and are unable j to jprovide. for themselves; .of 760 direct sufferers, 12 are' now supported by the j Kenchoand over 700 are soon to be provided for.. The larger portion of land - damaged was in the, uncultivated * region, and the land, where the population is most numer-, ous and which was well cultivated received only slight damage. The matters connected with the aid of tfaesuffereris are being satis- ■ faotorily attended to. . _ . ~ -