THE EARTHQUAKE IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 445, 4 January 1869, Page 2

THE EARTHQUAKE IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Panama papers received by the last mail contain accounts of the severe earthquake at San Francisco, already reported. Correspondents writing on the 21st October give the following account of the destruction they caused:—

By far the most terrible earthquake that ever visited this coast occurred this morning at seven minutes before eight o'clock. The shocks were tremendous, and the vibrations were prolonged. That portion of the city east of Montgomery-street is very much wrecked. Some buildings are down entirely, others are cracked and split from foundation to roof, and hardly one has escaped more or less. In several parts of the city, upon the made ground, the earth has opened and water has been thrown up to the height of several feet. On some of the streets the buildings have sunk some inches and been left in every conceivable shape. Scarcely a building in the eastern portion of the city is now plumb. The principal hotel's have suffered, but sustained no very serious damage. Of course they, as well as every other house, were vacated as soon as possible by their inmates. The streets are crowded this evening with an excited multitude discussing the particulars of the disastrous earthquake. Twelve shocks

•were felt through the day. The direction of the shocks were from north to south, though some descriptions give a rotary motion. The greatest damage extends in a belt several hundred feet wide, and running about north-west and south-east, commencing near the Custom-house and ending at Folsom-street wharf, injuring and demolishing about twelve buildings in its course. At the corner of Market and First streets the ground opened several inches wide and about forty or fifty feet in length. The City Hall may be considered a perfect wreck. The courts have all adjourned and the prisoners have been taken from the station-house to the Council jail. All the patients in the United States Marine Hospital have been removed, the building having been prouounced unsafe. The chimney of the United States Mint is so badly damaged that the establishment is closed for repairs. Hager's typefoundry suffered greatly. The Lincoln school house is badly damaged, and the large statue in front of the building completely buried. All business at the General Delivery Postoffice is temporarily suspended. The San Francisco Gas Works suffered severely ; the tall chimney having been • thrown over fell through the roof. The Mission Woollen Mills is considerably damaged. The large chimney of the sugar refinery in Eighth-street is badly cracked. The gable-end on the girl's side of the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Institute fell in, crushing through the ceilings. Many chimneys in the southern part of the city were thr >wn down, but no one was seriously injured by them. Only four lives have been reported lost, although numbers are seriously injured by the falling debris. The water in the bay was perfectly smooth at the time of the shocks, oud no percepible disturbance took place. The shocks were felt aboard the shipping in the harbor as if the vessel bad struck upon a rock. The shocks were equally severe in the interior. Alemeda County suffered most. Alemeda County lies on the east side of the bay of San Francisco, and directly opposite the peninsula which includes the County and the ' city of San Francisco. The damage > to property in Alemeda extended in all ' directions. Buck of the town of San Leandro (in the northern part of the Alemeda County) there are numerous fissures in the earth from some of which issued clouds of dust, and from others i volumes of water. San Leandro creek 1 which has been dry for months (as is ' usual at this season of the year), is now ] a rapidly running stream. In some 1 places hot water and steam gushed from the ground. The villages of San i Leandro and Haywards are almost in 1 ruins. These villages are fifteen or f twenty miles apart. The brick build- > ings were all thrown down and a hun- ] dred tenements have been rendered : uninhabitable. Numerous wooden '<■ structures were much damaged. The < towns of Alemeda, Brooklyn, and Oak- ' land all suffered severely. The des- * traction of property in the towns of San Jose and lledwood city was very ] great. The brick and adobe buildings ' in the " old mission San Jose" which is ' some miles east of the town of San ? Jose, are a mass of ruins. In the towns " of Peteluma, Healdsburg, Santa Bosa Valleys, and Martinez, the full force of the shock was felt; chimneys and fort walls were thrown down, and the ' damage is considerable.