THE RUINS OF SAN FRANCISCO


Towards the close of the nineteenth century the city of San Francisco
was totally ingulfed by an earthquake. Although the whole coast-line
must have been much shaken, the accident seems to have been purely
local, and even the city of Oakland escaped. Schwappelfurt, the
celebrated German geologist, has endeavored to explain this singular
fact by suggesting that there are some things the earth cannot
swallow,--a statement that should be received with some caution, as
exceeding the latitude of ordinary geological speculation.

Historians disagree in the exact date of the calamity. Tulu Krish, the
well-known New-Zealander, whose admirable speculations on the ruins
of St. Paul as seen from London Bridge have won for him the attentive
consideration of the scientific world, fixes the occurrence in A. D.
1880. This, supposing the city to have been actually founded in 1850,
as asserted, would give but thirty years for it to have assumed the
size and proportions it had evidently attained at the time of its
destruction. It is not our purpose, however, to question the conclusions
of the justly famed Maorian philosopher. Our present business lies with
the excavations that are now being prosecuted by order of the Hawaiian
government upon the site of the lost city.

Every one is familiar with the story of its discovery. For many years
the bay of San Francisco had been famed for the luscious quality of
its oysters. It is stated that a dredger one day raked up a large bell,
which proved to belong to the City Hall, and led to the discovery of