MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. _Fissures and Sand-Craters._--In point of size, there was nothing remarkable about the fissures in the ground produced by the Charleston earthquake. The largest were only a few hundred yards long, and, except near the river-banks, they rarely exceeded an inch in width. They seem, however, to have been unusually abundant; for, within an area of nearly 600 square miles surrounding the two epicentres, they were almost universal, and over a much wider area they still occurred in great numbers, though with somewhat less continuity. From many of these fissures water was ejected, carrying with it large quantities of sand and silt, and so abundantly that every stream-bed, even though generally dry in summer, was flooded. By the passage of the water, some part of the fissures was often enlarged into a round hole of considerable size, ending in a craterlet at the surface. Certain belts within the fissured area contained large numbers of these craterlets, of all sizes up to twenty feet or more in diameter. One near Ten-Mile Hill was twenty-one feet across. In this district, they were apparently larger and more numerous than elsewhere; many acres of ground being covered with sand, which, close to the orifices, was two feet or more in depth. Here and there, the water was ejected with considerable violence, as was manifest from the heights to which it spurted. The testimony of witnesses on this point is of course doubtful, for the earthquake occurred after nightfall, but in a few places the branches and leaves of trees overhanging the orifices were smirched with sand and mud up to a height of fifteen or twenty feet. _Effects on Human Beings._--It is interesting to notice the behaviour of different races under the influence of a violent earthquake, and perhaps no greater contrast could be observed than between the calmness exhibited by the Japanese in the presence of disaster and the wild fear merging into helpless panic that characterised the residents, and especially the negroes, of Charleston. "As we dashed down the stairway," says a writer already quoted (p. 108), "and out into the street, from every quarter arose the shrieks, the cries of pain and fear, the prayers and wailings of terrified women and children, commingled with the hoarse shouts of excited men.... On every side were hurrying forms of men and women, bareheaded, partially dressed, some almost nude, and all nearly crazed with fear and excitement.... A few steps away, under the gas-lamp, a woman lies prone and motionless on the pavement, with upturned face and outstretched limbs, and the crowd which has now gathered in the street passes her by, none pausing to see whether she is alive or dead ... no one knows which way to turn, or where to offer aid; many voices are speaking at once, but few heed what is said."