38 ABOUT VOLCANOS AND EARTHQUAKES. 



at once, at twenty minutes before ten A.M., a noise was 

 heard like the rumbling of carnages under ground ; it 

 increased rapidly and became a succession of deafening 

 explosions like the loudest cannon. Then a shock, 

 which, as described by one writing from the spot, 

 seemed to last but the tenth part of a minute ; and down 

 came tumbling palaces, churches, theatres, and every 

 large public edifice, and about a third or a fourth part of 

 the dwelling-houses. More shocks followed in rapid 

 succession, and in six minutes from the commencement 

 60,000 persons were crushed in the ruins ! Here are 

 the simple but expressive words of one J. Latham, who 

 writes to his uncle in London. " I was on the river 

 with one of my customers going to a village three miles 

 off. Presently the boat made a noise as if on the shore 

 or landing, though then in the middle of the water. I 

 asked my companion if he knew what was the matter. 

 He stared at me, and looking at Lisbon, we saw the 

 houses falling, which made him say, ' God bless us, it is 

 an earthquake ! ' About four or five minutes after, the 

 boat made a noise as before ; and we saw the houses 

 tumble down on both sides of the river." They then 

 landed and made for a hill whence they beheld the sea 

 (which had at first receded and laid a great tract dry) 

 come rolling in, in a vast mountain wave fifty or sixty 

 feet high, on the land, and sweeping all before it. Three 

 thousand people had taken refuge on a new stone quay 

 or jetty just completed at great expense. In an instant 

 it was turned topsy-turvy ; and the whole quay, and 

 every person on it, with all the vessels moored to it, 



