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Lyttelton Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1185, 19 January 1864, Page 2

The Causes op Earthquakes.—To our minds the inferences to be drawn are:—l. That every earthquake is not absolutely the same in its development. 2. That an earthquake is invariably the result of an equalisation of force from some central portion of the earth, where such force has accumulated, to the surrounding parts. 3. That the force may in some eases take the form of electricity, and that the shock felt may bo, in truth, a subterranean electrical storm causing no necessary disruption of the earth's surface, but instantaneous and widely-radiated shock or vibration. 4. That the force may be developed in the form of heat as well as electricity, giving rise, in the central point, to volanic explosion and disruption of the earth with vibration communicated to surrounding districts. 5. That earthquakes which are due to accumulation of heat, from suppression, may occur without any special antecedent atmospheric phenomena. 6. That earthquakes due to electrical discharge may, as Dr. Stukeley explained, be preceded by special atmospheric variations, indicating disturbance between the electrical forces of the earth and of the watery vapour above; and may end in a discharge from the earth, upon its coming in contact with clouds negatively electrical, followed by the vibration instantaneously felt through a large tract of the earth's surface, but not of necessity producing either breakage, volcano, or geyser. The recent earthquake was probably of this last-named cha- : racter.—Social Science Review. " The heign op Napoleon III.," says a letter : from Paris, " has been remarkable for the visits ' made by the diplomatic representatives of semibarbarous and distant nations, leaving in the shade even the court of Louis XIV., whose boast it was to have summoned from the extremities of the globe 1 some of the most outlandish ambassadors that civi- • lised society ever received. We have, for example, 1 had the Montenegrins, in picturesque costumes, their waists being encircled by many fire-arms and jew- 1 elled daggers. We have also witnessed in the streets ] of Paris the Japanese plenipotentiaries, who con- i sidered the ballet of the Grand Opera a paradise on i earth. The children of the desert, chiefs with < unpronounceable names, have visited us from the ! sandy wastes of Africa. At the present day we have the Anuamita ambassadors,"*-Express. 1