The fissures which were formed at the time of the Owen’s Valley earthquake in 1872 extended for miles nearly parallel to the neighbouring Sierras. In some places the ground between the fissures sank twenty or thirty feet, and at one place about three miles east of Independence, a portion of the road was carried eighteen feet to the south by a fissure.[40] Speaking generally, it may be said that all large earthquakes are accompanied by the formation of fissures. The Japanese have a saying that at the time of a large earthquake persons must run to a bamboo grove. The object of this is to escape the danger of being engulfed in fissures, the ground beneath a bamboo grove being so netted together with fine roots that it is almost impossible for it to be rent open. _Materials discharged from fissures._—Together with the opening of cracks in the earth it often has happened that water, mud, vapours, gases, and other materials, have been ejected. At the time of the Mississippi earthquake water, mixed with sand and mud, was thrown out with such violence that it spurted above the tops of the highest trees. In Italy such phenomena have often been repeated. From the fissures which were formed in 1692 at the time of the earthquakes in Sicily, water issued which in some instances was salt.[41] By the Cachar earthquake (January 10, 1869) numerous fissures were formed parallel to the banks of a river, from this water and mud were ejected. Dr. Oldham, who describes this earthquake, says that the first shot of dry mud or sand was mistaken for smoke or steam. The water was foul, and hotter than surface water at the time, but only slightly so; and the sulphurous smell was nothing more than you would perceive in stirring up the mud at the bottom of any stagnant pool which had lain undisturbed for some time.[42] In 1755, when Tauris was destroyed, boiling water issued from the cracks which were formed. Similar phenomena were witnessed at a place eight miles from La Banca in Mexico, in the year 1820. Part of this hot water was pure and part was muddy. Sometimes the water which has been ejected has been so muddy that the mud has been collected to form small hills. This was the case at the time of the Riobamba earthquake. The mud in this case consisted partly of coal, fragments of augite, and shells of infusoria. At the time of the Jamaica earthquake men who had fallen into crevices were in some cases thrown out again by issuing water. Sometimes, as has already been mentioned, vapour, gases, and even flames issue from fissures. Vapour of sulphur appears to be exceedingly common. Kluge says that many fish were killed in consequence of the sulphurous vapours which rose in the sea near to the coast of New Zealand in 1855. On December 14, 1797, an insupportable smell of sulphur was observed to have accompanied the earthquake which at that time shook Cumana, which was greatest when the disturbance was greatest.