210 THE GUATEMALAN EARTHQUAKES 
shook down the court-house and ruined the front of the old cathe- 
dral. Yet it may be affirmed that no paroxysmal convulsions have 
remodeled the geographical features of the Isthmus, as is the case 
with Nicaragua, and that its hills are nearly if not quite as stable as 
those of the Appalachian system. 
We have spoken of these facts, not alone from their former 
bearing upon the canal question, but especially from their press- 
ing importance in the light of recent events. In truth, little atten- 
tion had been or seemed likely to be paid to them by legislators 
until after the startling event of May 8, 1902. This put a different 
aspect on the case, and aroused the people and press of the U nited 
States to a peril threatening the canal, if constructed in Nicaragua, 
of which few had been aware. Such an explosion as that of Mont 
Pelee was certainly an awakening incident. The Mexican and 
Guatemalan earthquakes showed that the forces of eruption were 
not confined to the volcanic chain of the Antilles, but were active 
in a region closely adjoining the projected canal, and that there 
was no security that earthquake shock or volcanic explosion might 
not take place at any time on the line or in the immediate vicinity 
of the canal, letting its water escape through fissures or burying 
the nearly $200,000,000 of United States money expended in its 
construction under such tons of volcanic lava and ashes as have 
buried from sight the city of St. Pierre. Certainly, in view of these 
facts, Congress will feel it necessary to go slowly, and Panama 
Canal stock is likely to rise rapidly in public estimation as compared 
with that of its Nicaraguan rival. 
We have spoken of Professor Heilprin as one who has fre- 
quently pointed out the danger here considered. We cannot 
better close this chapter than by a quotation from his latest views 
on the subject, written since the M artinique disaster. He says :—