Letters, Extracts from Correspondence, Announcements, &;c. 333 



make the beasts scramble over the loose mounds to continue our 

 way. The mountain here was cracked in every direction, and it 

 was as much as spurs could do to make the terrified animals 

 progress, 



" In Quito the tall massive church towers have in many in- 

 stances, together with some thirty or forty houses, been thrown 

 down, and the buildings more or less damaged. Scarcely a 

 house or a room has escaped without cracks; some fronts of 

 houses lay in heaps in the streets : twelve persons were killed. 



" Tacunga, Ambato, and Riobamba have escaped entirely, but 

 Guano and the provinces have suffered severely. In Guayaquil 

 some thirty houses have been thrown down. 



" The general belief is that Pichincha has been the cause of 

 all, but I imagine it to have been the cure, for it appears that 

 the nearer Quito the slighter the shocks ; and this opinion is 

 partly confirmed by the following extract from Professor Jame- 

 son's letter : — ' The people here (Quito) believe that the volcano 

 of Pichincha has been the cause of the catastrophe, — an opinion 

 in which I cannot concur, otherwise the effect would have been 

 more local. In fact, the city, considering the height of the 

 public buildings, has suffered comparatively little damage, whilst 

 some villages in the neighbouring province, such as Cotocachi 

 and Aluntagui, are in a heap of ruins.' The shock in Guaya- 

 quil must have also been extremely severe. In Perucho it was de- 

 scribed as flowing from east to west. But C. R. Buckalew, Esq., 

 the United States Minister, who was in his patio at the moment, 

 says he distinctly saw the wave pass along the ridge of the roof 

 of his house, which lies north and south, and cross that portion 

 which is east and west, and that the whole city below was for the 

 moment in motion like a wave of the sea, followed by a cloud of 

 dust from the tumbled building materials." 



Mr. Osbert Salvin, one of the most active contributors to 

 'The Ibis,' left England on the 17th of May last, by the 

 W. I. M. Steamer ' Atrato,' on his return to Guatemala, where, 

 being about to become a resident, he will neglect no opportu- 

 nity of investigating the natural products of this little-known 



VOL. I. 2 a 



