110 



EARTHQUAKES. 



wall was thrown down, and all objects pot summarily shaken off were moved by successive jolts 

 to the north or south; generally in the latter direction. Every wall in the house was broken, 

 some of them so that day-light shone through ; others were thrown permanently out of the ver- 

 tical, and scarcely a tile remained in place on the roof. Our pendulum was still gyrating when 

 we could venture into the room where it was kept. Unfortunately the board supporting the 

 glass for the register had not been secured to the ground_, and was transferred during the severe 

 agitations nine tenths of an inch W. by N., as well as thrown out of the horizontal plane. 

 Thus it gave broken instead of closed curves precisely as represented here, which are traced 

 from the original sheet. 



But the direction of the moving power admitted of no doubt, the point of the pendulum 

 having passed along a line very nearly S. by W., and then described nearly elliptic curves, 

 the major axis of one of which probably exceeded 4 inches. Observations of this character 

 would be of high interest, could they be obtained in numbers ; but local causes, as the geological 

 formation, orology, &c., influence both direction and apparent violence to such extent that 

 isolated observations are of little absolute value. 



"We suffered on Santa Lucia too. Whilst we were dressing, our servant had been despatched 

 immediately that the great shock ceased, to learn the condition of the instruments. Following 

 a few minutes later, the rocky mass was found broken across from east to west between the 

 observatories and castle, and a crevice remained, which, at the surface, was nearly an inch 

 wide. A glance showed the instruments uninjured, but one of the piers supporting the meridian 

 circle (the western) had been greatly disturbed. These piers are composed of three blocks each, 

 forming massive obelisks 6^ feet high above the floor, and 2 feet square at the base, secured to 

 each other and to the base of porphyry in situ with hydraulic cement. The joint nearest the floor 

 of the west pier was opened ; the blocks, no doubt, rocked, and the whole pier was shifted to the 

 south, until it formed an angle of 5' with the eastern pier. Our clock had not been stopped, or 

 rather we found the pendulum oscillating ; but observations proved that it had been retarded 

 eleven and a half seconds! Every other pendulum clock in Santiago had come to a stand. 



The streets were filled with an excited and still greatly alarmed multitude, wandering from 

 place to place in examination of the ruins of walls and turrets, and the masses of tiles and rub- 

 bish that occupied a portion of every thoroughfare. 



Where the tiles had not fallen, the roofs looked as though ploughs had upturned them ; and 



