A MIGHTY SEA-WAVE. 



173 



wave at Arica on that occasion should be com- 

 pared with that of the wave last May. About 

 twenty minutes after the first earth-shock the sea 

 was seen to retire, as if about to leave the shores 

 wholly dry ; but presently its waters returned 

 with tremendous force. A mighty wave, whose 

 leugth seemed immeasurable, was seen advancing 

 like a dark wall upon the unfortunate town, a 

 large part of which was overwhelmed by it. Two 

 ships, the Peruvian corvette America, and the 

 American double-ender Wateree, were carried 

 nearly half a mile to the north of Arica, beyond 

 the railroad which runs to Tacna, and there left 

 stranded high and dry. As the English vice-con- 

 sul at Arica estimated the height of this enormous 

 wave at fully fifty feet, it would not seem that 

 the account of the wave of last May has been ex- 

 aggerated, for a much less height is, as we have 

 seen, attributed to it, though, as it carried the 

 Wateree still farther inland, it must have been 

 higher. The small loss of life can be easily un- 

 derstood, when we consider that the earthquake 

 was not followed instantly by the sea-wave. 

 Warned by the experience of the earthquake of 

 1868, which most of them must have remembered, 

 the inhabitants sought safety on the higher 

 grounds until the great wave and its successors 

 had flowed in. We read that the damage done 

 was greater than that caused by the previous ca- 

 lamity, the new buildings erected since 1868 being 

 of a more costly and substantial class. Merchan- 

 dise from the custom-house and stores was car- 

 ried by the water to a point on the beach five 

 miles distant. 



At Iquique, in 1868, the great wave was esti- 

 mated at fifty feet in height. We are told that it 

 was black with the mud and slime of the sea-bot- 

 tom. " Those who witnessed its progress from 

 the upper balconies of their houses, and present- 

 ly saw its black mass rushing close beneath their 

 feet, looked on their safety as a miracle. Many 

 buildings were, indeed, washed away, and in the 

 low-lying parts of the town there was a terrible 

 loss of life." Last May the greatest mischief at 

 Iquique would seem to have been caused by the 

 earthquake, not by the sea-wave, though this, 

 also, was destructive in its own way. " Iquique," 

 we are told, " is in ruins. The movement was ex- 

 perienced there at the same time and with the 

 same force " (as at Arica). " Its duration was ex- 

 actly four minutes and a third. It proceeded 

 from the southeast, exactly from the direction of 

 Ilaga." The houses built of wood and cane tum- 

 bled down at the first attack, lamps were broken, 

 and the burning oil spread over and set fire to 



the ruins. Three companies of firemen, German, 

 Italian, and Peruvian, were instantly at their 

 posts, although it was difficult to maintain an up- 

 right position, shock following shock with dread- 

 ful rapidity. Nearly 400,000 quintals of nitrate 

 in the stores at Iquique and the adjacent ports 

 of Molle and Pisagua were destroyed. The Brit- 

 ish bark Caprera and a German bark sank, and 

 all the coasting-craft and small boats in the har- 

 bor were broken to pieces, and drifted about in 

 every direction. 



At Chanavaya, a small town at the guano- 

 loading deposit known as Pabellon de Pica, only 

 two houses were left standing out of four hun- 

 dred. Here the earthquake-shock was specially 

 severe. In some places the earth opened in crev- 

 ices seventeen yards deep, and the whole surface 

 of the ground was changed. The shipping along 

 the Peruvian and Bolivian coast suffered terribly. 

 The list of vessels lost or badly injured at Pabellon 

 de Pica alone reads like the list of a fleet. 



We have been particular in thus describing 

 the effects produced by the earthquake and sea- 

 wave on the shores of South America, in order 

 that the reader may recognize in the disturbance 

 produced there the real origin of the great wave 

 which a few hours later reached the Sandwich 

 Isles, 5,000 miles away. Doubt has been enter- 

 tained respecting the possibility of a wave, other 

 than the tidal wave, being transmitted right 

 across the Pacific. Although in August, 1868, 

 the course of the great wave which swept from 

 some region near Peru, not only to the Sandwich 

 Isles, but in all directions over the entire ocean, 

 could be clearly traced, there were some who 

 considered the connection between the oceanic 

 phenomena and the Peruvian earthquake a mere 

 coincidence. It is on this account, perhaps, 

 chiefly, that the evidence obtained last May is 

 most important. It is interesting, indeed, as 

 showing how tremendous was the disturbance 

 which the earth's frame must then have under- 

 gone. It would have been possible, however, had 

 we no other evidence, for some to have maintained 

 that the wave which came in upon the shores of 

 the Sandwich Isles a few hours after the earth- 

 quake and sea-disturbance in South America 

 was, in reality, an entirely independent phenome- 

 non. But when we compare the events which 

 happened last May with those of August, 1868, 

 and perceive their exact similarity, we can no 

 longer reasonably entertain any doubt of the 

 really stupendous fact that the throes of the earth 

 in and near Peru are of svfficie?it energy to send 

 an oceanic wave right across the Pacific, and of 



