Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1886 — CONFLICTING AUTHORITIES. [ARTICLE]

CONFLICTING AUTHORITIES.

Learned Men That Hohl Different Views on the Causes of Earthquakes. [Washington telegram.] Prof. Newcomb of the Nautical Almanac says that there is no astronomical explanation of earthquakes. He says the talk about the peculiar weather of this season having anything todo with the present one is nonsense. Prof. Powell of the. geological survey has an elaborate theory about the thinness of the crust of the earth along the Atlantic borders. Prof. Capen, from the Signal Service Bureau, who has made considerable local reputation, and who professes to haveforetold this disturbance three weeks ago, says that it is directly attributed to the influence of "the three bodies, sun, mcon and earth. When these bodies get into a certain relation to each other disturbances ore likely to occur. Professor Mendenhall of the signal service, who has lived in Japan where he could study’ earthquakes every day, says they are not subject toany rules so'far as he knows.