The most destructive of earthquakes in our former history was that which visited Charleston, South Carolina, in 1886, the injury caused by it being largely due to the fact that it passed through a populous city.  As it occurred after many of the people had retired, the confusion and terror due to it were greatly augmented, people fleeing in panic fear from the tumbling and cracking houses to seek refuge in the widest streets and open spaces.

South Carolina had been affected by the wide-spread earthquakes of 1812.  These in some cases altered the level of the land, as is related in Lyell’s “Principles of Geology.”  But the effect then was much less than in 1886.  Several slight tremors occurred in the early summer of that year, but did not excite much attention.  More distinct shocks were felt on August 27th and 28th, but the climax was deferred till the evening of August 31st.  The atmosphere that afternoon had been unusually sultry and quiet, the breeze from the ocean, which generally accompanies the rising tide, was almost entirely absent, and the setting sun caused a little glow in the sky.

“As the hour of 9.50 was reached,” we are told, “there was suddenly heard a rushing, roaring sound, compared by some to a train of cars at no great distance, by others to a clatter produced by two or more omnibuses moving at a rapid rate over a paved street, by others again, to an escape of steam from a boiler.  It was followed immediately by a thumping and beating of the earth beneath the houses, which rocked and swayed to and fro.  Furniture was violently moved and dashed to the floor; pictures were swung from the walls, and in some cases turned with their backs to the front, and every movable thing was thrown into extraordinary convulsions.  The greatest intensity of the shock is considered to have been during the first half, and it was probably then, during the period of its greatest sway, that so many chimneys were broken off at the junction of the roof.  The duration of this severe shock is thought to have been from thirty-five to forty seconds.  The impression produced on many was that it could be subdivided into three distinct movements, while others were of the opinion that it was one continuous movement, or succession of waves, with the greatest intensity, as already stated, during the first half of its duration.”

Twenty-seven persons were killed outright, and more than that number died soon after of their hurts or from exposure; many others were less seriously injured.  Among the buildings, the havoc, though much less disastrous than has been recorded in some other earthquakes in either hemisphere, was very great.  “There was not a building in the city which had escaped serious injury.  The extent of the damage varied greatly, ranging from total demolition down to the loss of chimney tops and the dislodgment of more or less plastering.  The number of buildings which were completely demolished and levelled to the ground was not great; but there