128 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



long, curved neck, exhausted the air from it, and placed the mouth 

 under mercury. The body of the flask was then set in a vessel of 

 dilute sulphuric acid. The outer surface was attacked by the acid 

 and hydrogen evolved, some of which passed into the interior of 

 the flask, and, driving out the mercury, escaped in bubbles from 

 the trough. Hydrogen passes into metals with most remarkable 

 facility, and Mr. Graham believes is liquefied with them. 



EARTHQUAKE WAVES. 



One of the most striking of the phenomena attending earth- 

 quakes is the effect produced on the sea by these convulsions, 

 especially when the earthquake is near the shore. In an earth- 

 quake there is an undulation of tiie solid crust of the earth, and 

 the influence of the earth wave being communicated to the sea, 

 causes the latter to swell and retire from the beach, and the great 

 wave rolls in upon the shore. This is frequently the case in the 

 immediate locality of the earthquake ; but it sometimes happens 

 that the influence of the disturbing agencies upon the sea extends 

 to a considerable distance from the place where the earthquake 

 occurs. The late terrible earthquake furnishes some curious and 

 highly interesting facts bearing upon these points. In this earth- 

 quake the sea was terribly agitated along the whole western 

 coast of South America; and along the northern coast of the 

 same side of the continent, as well as on the shores of the Sand- 

 wich Islands, the disturbance of the ocean consequent on the 

 subterranean convulsions was sensibly experienced. In Peru 

 several of the ports were submerged by mountain waves rolling 

 in from the Pacific with terrific violence, sweeping away everything 

 before them. On the southern coast of Chili, at Talcahuano, a 

 whaling station, distant fully 1,400 miles from Arica, at about 11 

 o'clock on the night of the loth of August, — that is, about 6 hours 

 after the catastrophe in Peru and Ecuador iiad taken place, — a 

 great tidal wave swept into the bay, submerging a greater part of 

 the towns of Talcahuano and Tome. 



But, more remarkable still, tidal phenomena of a similar char- 

 acter to those which appeared on the southern side of the con- 

 tinent, showed themselves on the coast of California, at a distance 

 of nearly 4,000 miles from Peru. A letter appears in the " Los An- 

 gelos Star," from Mr. E. Hewitt, describing a tidal phenomenon 

 witnessed at Wilmington, Southern California, on the 14th of 

 August, at about 7 o'clock on the morning of that day. He says, 

 *'Tlie tide was observed to be running in with unusual velocity 

 for about 15 minutes, and then to suddenly turn and run out for 

 about the same length of time with the same unexampled rapid- 

 ity. It is now 9 o'clock in the evening, and the same running in 

 and running out, at intervals of from 15 to 25 minutes for each 

 direction, has been going on since it was first observed this morn- 

 ing. Capt. Polhamus, of the steamer Cricket, informs me, that 

 in crossing the bar to-day he observed the water fall 5 feet in 8 

 minutes, and to immediately rise the same number of feet in the 



