“Mountains that moved in the night; landslides that eddied like waterfalls, crevasses that swallowed houses and camel trains, and villages that were swept away under a rising sea of loose earth, were a few of the subsidiary occurrences that made the earthquake in Kansu ( Gansu ) one of the most appalling catastrophes in history.”"The area of destruction, 100 by 300 miles in extent, contains ten large cities, besides numerous villages.