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



Andes. Many poor people lost their lives, and all were driven 

 to the surrounding desert, to seek safety in distance from the 

 dangerous vicinity of walls and houses. 



On the evening preceding the two earthquakes, of which I 

 have spoken, the atmosphere was very dense, an ominous inex- 

 plicable stillness seemed to prevail, broken only at intervals by 

 the breathing of an air of wind, which appeared to have no de- 

 termined direction, and was felt within doors the same as in the 

 street. The atmosphere appeared to be in a highly electrical 

 state, and many people taking notice of these things, were in 

 some degree prepared for the coming calamity. Nor was the 

 howling of the dogs and braying of jack-asses during the night 

 disregarded. In countries exposed to earthquakes people ac- 

 quire a habit of observing any thing considered as an indication, 

 as well as a delicacy in the perception, of the slightest shake, 

 Ivhich appears to a stranger ridiculous timidity. Two or three 

 circumstances came under my own observation, which seemed 

 to prove that some powerful agent is at work in the atmosphere 

 besides the hidden one below the surface. A great number of 

 empty glass phials I found next day standing where they had 

 been left, but the stoppers were scattered in all directions about 

 the room. A few others, containing different liquids, were thrown 

 from the shelves and broken, but no empty one had even fallen 

 on its side. On a highly varnished new table, at which I had 

 the night before been reading, the varnish became so fluid that 

 it passed through the boards of several books, and they next 

 day appeared as if glued to the mahogany. From several large 

 earthen jars sunk in the earth, the water was thrown in con- 

 siderable quantity over the mouths, although in none of them 

 was it nearer to the top than from 3 to 4 feet. One singularity 

 in the dog is remarked here, and it is, that immediately after a 

 shock, whether strong or weak, the whole dogs of the place 

 run to drink at the nearest water. 



I had got this length when a messenger arrived from Arica 

 to inform us, that the vessel which takes our letters to England 

 positively sails in the morning, and they must leave this imme- 

 diately. I proposed giving a short historical view of the prin- 

 cipal earthquakes which have happened on the coast of Peru 

 since the conquest, along with a brief description of the princi- 



