174 Mr Reid's Notice of an Earthquake at Saena in Peru. 



was covered with a layer of ice one inch thick ; the other had 

 no marks of congelation. Bullets covered with cloth, warm as 

 well as cold, afforded similar results." 



Notice of an Earthquake at Saena in Peru. By John 

 Reid, Esq. Communicated by the Author. 



Sir, Saena, Wth November 1833. 



The place from which I write is situated forty miles N.NW. 

 of the port of Arica, on the coast of Peru, and twenty-five miles 

 inland from the point of the bay of the same name, laid down 

 in our maps as the Morra de Sama. The surrounding country 

 is part of that hopeless waste which reaches along the coast 

 from Tumbey to the confines of Chili, on which nature in de- 

 nying it rain has set the impress of eternal sterility. 



The Cordillera of the Andes, which runs nearly the whole 

 extent of this side of South America, parallel with the coast, 

 is distant only about twenty miles, and presents the sublime 

 summits of Tacora^ and three other nameless mountains, covered, 

 for several thousand feet> with perpetual snow, glittering under 

 the pure sunshine of a tropical sky. The climate, from our 

 proximity to the Cordillera on the one hand, and the Pacific 

 Ocean on the other, is one of the finest in the world : seven 

 years of almost constant observation have given me a medium of 

 63°, as the general average temperature of day and night. Rain, 

 in the proper sense of the word, is unknown in winter. We 

 have sometimes a drizzling mist during the night ; but even this 

 is rare, and wind, except in the slight southerly trade breeze, 

 which sets in about mid-day, and calms at sunset, is utterly un- 

 known. A small stream, dignified by the name of River, de- 

 scends from the Cordillera, and by its careful distribution, sup- 

 ports the luxuriant vegetation which environs the town, but 

 these advantages are more than counterbalanced by our exposure 

 to earthquakes. 



On the night of the 8th of October 1831, at a quarter past 

 9 o'clpck, the first great " terremoto,"" for a period of nearly a 

 century, took place here. Its approach was announced by a 

 hollow rumbling subterraneous noise, not unlike, but much 



