SENSATIONS OF EARTHQUAKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13497, 25 May 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

SENSATIONS OF EARTHQUAKE.

[WHEN THE,EARTH MOVED LIKE A j '.''." MONSTROUS snake:""\"V ;t A survivor of the Jamaica disaster. tells a vivid story of his experiences, with ar accompaniment of many fine photographs; | in the new number of the Pall Mall Magazine. These are a few characteristic sen-

tehees : —

| I was idly ■ lounging near the piazza of one' of Kingston's finest hotels, ;after one of those peculiarly satisfying and soothing lunches arranged by those . familial", with what is best for the climate. I was'musing and endeavouring to reconcile my impressions—the one crowding out the otherof this piw»resque and strangely interesting j tropical country city, with ■ its quaintly- j formed dust-covered shanties, side by. 6ide with modern and imposing buildings, and its more interesting and motley crowd of people passing along the streets of Kingston. The sun was shining with dazzling brilliancy, bathing all unsheltered ob- i jects with its radiance, its great heat tempered only slightly by a weak breeze from-the sea- " : ;

I had sauntered no more than twenty paces from the spot, when, without a moment's warning of any kind, the earth shook to and fro, upwards and downwards, with a tremendous, awe-inspiring violence.

' Amidst the rapid succession of feelings of surprise and consternation, my first coherent thought seems now to have been one of consideration for maintaining an upright position during the ; . strange tumult. .-This I did with great difficulty, performing in the air all sorts of convolutions with my aims and body. Then there seems to have hurried through my mind with startling rapidity a chaotic mixture of emotions fear, annoyance,, discomfort, dread, hopelessness resolved finally into < one predominating feeling of recklessness as I swiftly glanced around me and : realised the , sad havoc being wrought, and. on such a wholesale scale.

As near as I can define the sensations of .those awful seconds, they seem to have been not unlike as though the earth were : stretching and writhing in the fashion of some monstrous snake.

I I saw my friends, some standing there in most unnatural positions, with, a similar mixture of feeling plainly written on ■ their blanched faces, others lying prostrate, on the ground where they had been thrown.

Close to where I stood was a fissure in the earth, threatening awful possibilities; it was at least eight inches in width, and stretched irregularly from the seashore like a ghastly serpent towards the tottering building in the ; dust-obscured distance. Although the first shock and its reverberations were spent within ten seconds of time, the twisting and- writhing appeared to increase, the atmosphere suddenly became oppressive, the sky darkened ominously, and amidst it all Iv; seem "* to "be saying to myself, "Will it never, never stop?" and I felt, with an involuntary shudder, that this must after all be the end of all creation, and that I was near to death. ■•'■■■ v . "

, Within twenty minutes, and almost before the shattered and torn remnants of thousands of structures buildings and homeshad settled in the disorder the destruction had brought about, flames were wildly crackling and soaring high over what is now the bier of the faith, hope, and industry of a couple of centuries. ,'