Lesson xxxv.} EARTHQUAKES. 251 



whole of its continuance, and lasted some seconds 

 after the motion of the earth had ceased ; dying 

 away like a peal of distant thunder rolling through 

 the air. At three quarters past eleven, the sea, 

 which was quite calm, it being a fine day, and no 

 wind stirring, retired suddenly some paces; then 

 rising with a great swell without the least noise, and 

 as suddenly advancing, overflowed the shore, and 

 entered the city. It rose fifteen feet perpendicularly 

 above the high-water mark, although the tide, 

 which flows there seven feet, was then at half ebb. 

 The water immediately receded ; and after having 

 fluctuated four or five times between high and low 

 water-mark, it subsided, the sea remaining calm 

 as before. In the northern part of the island the 

 inundation was more violent, and the sea there 

 retiring above one hundred paces at first, and sud- 

 denly returning, overflowed the shore, forcing open 

 doors, breaking down the ;& alls of several maga- 

 zines and storehouses, leaving great quantities of 

 fish ashore and in the streets of the village of Ma- 

 chico. All this was the effect of one rising of the 

 sea, for it never afterwards flowed high enough to 

 reach the high-water mark. It continued, however, 

 to fluctuate here much longer before it subsided 

 than at Funchal ; and in some places farther to the 

 westward, it was hardly, if at all, perceptible. 



These were the phaenomena with which this re- 

 markable earthquake was attended in those places 

 where it was violent. The effects of it, however, 

 reached to an immense distance; and were per- 

 ceived chiefly by the agitations of the waters, or 



by 



