VOLCANIC ERUPTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8670, 12 September 1891, Page 5

VOLCANIC ERUPTION.

DISASTROUS EARTHQUAKE IN SAN SALVADOR. . CITIES DESTROYED. HUNDREDS OF LIVES LOST. A REIGN OF TERROR. Press Association— Telegraph.—Copyright. : New York, September 10. Intelligence is to hand that a severe shock of earthquake has been experienced in the Republic of San Salvador, Central America, resulting in many lives being lost, and destruction of property to the extent of several million dollars. '

The' New York Herald's correspondent telegraphs that hardly a city in the republic has escaped the effects of the shock. The cities of Analquito and Cosmasagna were completely destroyed, while Oojutepeuge, Santa Tekla, San Pedro, and Washante have been ruined. Since the shock three great volcanic mountains have become active. Later. The Herald's correspondent telegraphs that the earthquake in San Salvador took place at midnight. The telegraph lines were broken for. a radius of 60 miles, and hundreds of lives were lost.

A perfect reign of terror is established, and people- are leaving the country in all directions.

San Salvador is the. smallest but most densely peopled of the republics of Central America; ' has a coast lino of 160 miles along the Pacific from the mouth of Rio de la Poz to that of Goascora, in the Gulf of Fon3eca, and is bounded inland by Guatamala on the west and Honduras on the north and east.. Its length from east to west is 140 miles, and its average breadth about 60 miles. Its area is estimated at "'225 square miles, and in 1883 it contained 613,273 inhabitants (290,870 males and 322,403 females.) With the exception of a comparatively narrow seaboard of low alluvial plains, the country consists mainly of a plateau 2000 feet above the level of the sea broken by a' large number of volcanic cones geologically of more recent date than the main chain of the Cordillera. The principal, river of the Kepublic is the Rio : Lampa, which rising near Esquipulas, in Guatemala,' and crossing the corner of Honduras enters Salvador north of Citata. The volcanic mountains do not form a chain but a series of clusters—the Izalco group on the west, the San Salvador group about 30 miles to the east, Cojutcpeque to the north-east, and the San Vicente group to the cast of the great volcanic lake of Hopango. The volcanic forces in Salvador | have not (says a recent authority) as yet 'spent themselves. The Izalco. vent still acts as a safety-valve, and the neighbourhood of the • capital is -so subject to tremblings and rockings of the earth as to have acquired the name of swinging-mat or hammock. Tho city itself has been destroyed by earthquake in 1594, IGSB, 1719, and 1854. San Miguel is described as one of tho most treacherous burning mountains in America, sometimes several years in complete - repose and then all at once bursting out'with terrific fury. In 1879 the lake of Ilopatigo was the scene of a remarkable phenomenon. With a length of oh miles and a breadth of 4£. it forms a rough parallelogram with deeply indented sides, and is surrounded in all directions by steep mountains, except where the villages of Astino and Apulo occupy little patches of level ground. Between the 21st of December, 1879, and the 11th of January, 1880, tho lake rose four feet above its level. The Jiboa, which flows out of the north-east corner, became, instead of a very shallow stream 20 feet broad, a raging torrent, which soon scooped out for itself in the volcanic rocks a channel 30 to 35 feet deep. A rapid subsidence of the lake was thus produced, and by the 6th of March the level was 34if feet below the maximum. Towards the centro of the lake a volcanic centre, about 500 feet in diameter, rose 150 feet , above tho water, surrounded by a number of small islands. A number of villages were ruined by ' the accompanying earthquakes. T' lo lake, originally stocked by tho early Spanish settlers, had become the great fish-pond of tho Republic. On the outbreak of the volcanic forces the fish fled towards the sides, and on the receding of the water their dead bodies were left behind in such quantities that at Asino hundreds of men were employed for days burying them to avoid a pestilence. San Salvador, the capital, has a population of 14,059 inhabitants, and according to 'the census of 1878 there were 68 other places in tho Republic with over 2000 each, from Santa Ana 29,908, and a number of others varying from 10,000 to 7000.