EARTHQUAKES. 117 



MAY 26. 



At OA. 14m. 10. P. M. there was a very moderate earthquake, which lasted nearly ten 

 seconds. The wave was extremely long, and consequently its motion slow; for which reason 

 the phenomenon escaped the attention of a large number of the population. All the city 

 clocks were stopped by it. We learned, subsequently, that it had been very severe at the 

 north ; Copiapo and Huasco having suffered extremely from its effects. One Copiapo paper 

 says it occurred there " about a quarter past 1 p. M. ;" the other is more specific, and fixes the 

 epoch at 1A. 20m. A number of houses were thrown down, many unroofed, and large quant 

 of property destroyed. Similar destruction was experienced in the mining district*, each about 

 50 miles distant one to the 8.E., the other to the N.W. From the fact that the injunes were 

 greater at the former than at the latter, and also because of the estimated motion of the strong 

 horizontal shocks, many supposed that the origin of the disturbance was to the southward. 

 Others believed that it was in the Andes, or to the east. A great noise accompanied the vibra- 

 tion, which lasted nearly two minutes. It was said that a crevice, fifty yards long and eight 

 inches wide, was opened within the city, from which water issued; but when I visited Copiapo, 

 five weeks later, the account proved, like ten thousand other earthquake prodigies, wholly 

 fabulous. The injury to property was not so great as at Santiago and Valparaiso, April 2 ; 

 though its better preservation was evidently attributable to less elevated walls and lighter roofs. 

 Between the time of the great shock and midnight of the 27th, more than one hundred tremors 

 were counted; and, on the 31st, the Editor of El Pueblo says : "We have arrived at the sixth 

 day of the earth-storm, and still the shocks cease not. Last night and this morning we have 

 had at least six; two or three of which were of some duration and violence." 



At Caldera the duration of the shock was much the same as at Copiapo, but it was not 

 thought go violent. Afterwards, the sea ebbed and flowed in waves at intervals of seven to ten 

 minutes, until darkness prevented its being longer observed. The height of the wave never 

 appeared more than four feet ; and when lowest, the receding volume bared the bay two feet 

 below the lowest tide-mark.* It was estimated by W. W. Evans, Esq., resident engineer of 

 the railroad, that 2,000,000 cubic feet of water passed through the entrance of the bay twice in 

 every seven to ten minutes. 



At Huasco, the shock was felt at 1A. 07m. p. M., when the church and many houses were 

 irreparably injured. Shortly afterwards the sea retired from the beach with incredible velocity, 

 until about 150 yards were left bare. Some of the vessels dragged their anchors, and one parted 

 its cable in the rush. Of a sudden, a wave, more than ten feet higher than the highest tides, 

 rolled to shore, inundated the custom-house, and washed out the goods deposited in its patio. 

 This phenomenon was observed half a league out at sea, repeating itself many times and at 

 short intervals. 



An official letter to the Minister of the Interior, from the governor of Freirina, (three or four 

 leagues east of Huasco,) says, that the earthquake occurred there about a quarter past 1 p. M., 

 that it was more severe than the oldest persons remembered for above fifty years, and that the 

 duration of its greatest violence was more than a minute. Some houses were prostrated, and 

 many walls broken ; but no mention is made of the supposed direction from which the disturb- 

 ance- came. Up to the hour of writing at the close of the second day the phenomenon was 

 repeated at short intervals. 



The governor says, it took place in Vallenar (thirty miles in an air-line E.S.E. from Frei- 

 rina) at 1A. 42m., that the total duration of the oscillation was three minutes, and that of the 

 greatest violence fifteen seconds. Every house was much deteriorated, and some wholly ruined. 

 Shocks were repeated at intervals during the remainder of the day and night. 



At Serena its duration was a minute and a half, and it was so sharp that all the inhabitants 

 took to the streets, though no injury to property resulted. It occurred at 1A. 17m. p. M., and 



* The rise and fall of the tide here is 5 feet. 



