128 EARTHQUAKES. 



consequent derangement of the digestive organs during days and weeks of excitement, will 

 produce nervous disorders; but we need further evidence to establish as truth, that character- 

 istic changes in the diseases named are solely attributable to this cause. Nor are the reasons 

 for the supposed effects on soil and horticulture much better based. Certain tracts in Peru, 

 permanently elevated or otherwise distorted by earthquakes, have been deprived of their supplies 

 of water, preventing the irrigation essential to cultivation in that rainless region ; and the 

 oranges, figs, peaches, and latterly the grapes in Chile have become diseased^ deteriorating and 

 dying out gradually from north to south of the republic, as we find elsewhere in America and 

 Europe. Formerly, the vicinity of Melipilla was famed for its oranges ; now, scarcely a tree 

 remains ; and the peste, as it is called, is making rapid work with trees as far north as Quillota. 



In conclusion, I may repeat, there are no phenomena which affect one so powerfully as 

 earthquakes. The frequency of their repetition, instead of familiarizing the mind and dimin- 

 ishing apprehension, produces an effect precisely the reverse ; and a stranger, who is, perhaps, 

 charmed to experience the novelty, falls rapidly into the custom of the country, and flies from 

 the danger of toppling walls with the earliest rumble of the subterranean storm. How keenly 

 sensitive the ears become to the faintest vibration of this unmistakable sound is credible only 

 to those who live in earthquake countries. When even a loud knock at the door had proved 

 inaudible amid the boisterous mirth of a party seated about the centre-table of a parlor, I have 

 known one of the number suddenly exclaim temblor! And so it was ; the shock occurring before 

 all had escaped to the open patio. Others have a different faculty sharpened. 'Visiting at the 

 house of a friend one evening, a guest sprang from her seat, uttering the same ominous word, 

 and fled from the parlor. As at such times none wait to judge for themselves ; all followed her, 

 though neither sound nor motion became perceptible to us until some seconds after. Subse- 

 quently, she assured us that she could always detect a slight tremor through the earth before 

 the rumbling noise preceding the shock felt by most persons, and thus could warn her family. 

 So timid do many become that they never sleep with closed doors, as these are apt to become 

 jammed at the first shock, and escape becomes impossible. An anecdote is told of a German, 

 who saved the lives of himself and companions by a similar precaution. They had sat down to 

 play at cards, on the night of the earthquake in November, 1822, and, from his previous expe- 

 rience, he rose to open their door, positively refusing to remain in a room where it was closed. 

 The shock commenced before he regained his seat, and the house they occupied was shaken to 

 the ground. Had their door jammed at that shock, they must have been buried beneath 

 the ruins. 



Sad and terrible as are the realities, the most marvellous exaggerations are perpetrated in 

 nearly all oral and many written accounts of earthquakes. In the terror inspired by the exhibi- 

 tion of an unseen, mysterious, yet overwhelming power, credulity clothes creatures of the 

 imagination with reality, and when time has obtained for such data a respect due only to facts, 

 the inquirer after truth finds difficulty in determining which is fact, which is fiction. Some- 

 thing of this may be appreciated by comparing the accounts (in the Appendix) which the seve- 

 ral newspapers gave of the April and May earthquakes with that of the preceding pages. Let 

 us be thankful to an all-wise and all-powerful Creator, that he has exempted our land from 

 similar dread convulsions, one of which, no greater than that of December 6, 1851, would raze 

 the proudest city of our country to its foundations. 



