All of our readers will recollect the Jamaica earthquake which occurred comparatively recently. Port Kingston, in Jamaica, has had its share of earthquake disasters. In the year 1692 Port Royal, the then chief city, was destroyed, and in rebuilding it the Jamaicans moved it across the harbour, because the old town site was largely submerged beneath the sea. It was a recurrence of the settlement of the ground which in part produced the earthquake of January 14th, 1907. There were slight shocks preceding the earthquake, and subterranean rumblings. The chief damage was done before thirty-five seconds had gone by, and of course the catastrophe was greater because the shocks were felt in the neighbourhood of a city. Considered by itself the earthquake was not of the order of "great" earthquakes, but many of the effects were most curious. A statue of Queen Victoria on a pedestal was partly turned round; a series of steep terraces was formed by the side of the harbour; a small spring was converted into a stream eight feet wide; and, as we all know, very great destruction was inflicted on life and property. Soundings which have since then been made in the harbour show that its depth has greatly increased in some parts, in one instance by not less than twenty-seven feet. The greatest depression occurred near Port Royal (the old city), where a hundred yards or more of the ground was submerged by water varying from eight to twenty-five feet in depth. Proceeding northwards from the Antilles to North America, we come to other famous areas of earthquake disturbance. In 1811 and 1812 there were earthquakes along the lower lands of the great Mississippi River, which were felt throughout the whole of the eastern portion of the United States and as far west as exploration had gone. At New Madrid, which appears to have been near the centre of the disturbance, "subterranean thunder" appears to have been heard frequently for many years preceding the earthquake, though it had ceased for nearly a year. About two o'clock in the morning of December 16th, 1811, there came a severe shock accompanied by a noise which was like near thunder, and a few minutes afterwards the air was filled with sulphurous vapour. People thought that the end of the world had come. Light shocks were felt till sunrise; and then one more violent than the first occurred. But this was not the end. For three months the shocks went on, and in that time no fewer than 1874 shocks were recorded, eight of them great ones. The shock of January 23rd, though as violent as any that preceded it, was surpassed by the so-called "hard shock," which came at about four o'clock in the afternoon of February 7th. It was accompanied by a discharge of sulphurous vapour in the atmosphere, and an unusual darkness which added greatly to the terror of the people. [Illustration: _Stereo Copyright, Underwood & U._ _London and New York_ A House destroyed by an Earthquake