A GREAT SEA-WAVE. 197 



and shocks by which whole cities are changed into a 

 heap of ruins are by no means infrequent. Yet even 

 in Peru, ( the land of earthquakes,' as Humboldt has 

 termed it, no such catastrophe as that of August 1868 

 had occurred within the memory of man. It was not 

 one city which was laid in ruins, but a whole empire. 

 Those who perished were counted by tens of thousands, 

 while the property destroyed by the earthquake was 

 valued at millions of pounds sterling. 



Although so many months have passed since this 

 terrible calamity took place, scientific men have been 

 busily engaged until quite recently in endeavouring to 

 ascertain the real significance of the various events 

 which were observed during and after the occurrence 

 of the earthquake. The geographers of Germany 

 have taken a special interest in interpreting the evi- 

 dence afforded by this great manifestation of nature's 

 powers. Two papers have been written recently on 

 the great earthquake of August 13, 1868, one by 

 Professor Yon Hochstetter, the other by Herr Yon 

 Tschudi, which present an interesting account of the 

 various effects, by land and by sea, which resulted from 

 the tremendous upheaving force to which the western 

 flanks of the Peruvian Andes were subjected on that 

 day. The effects on land, although surprising and 

 terrible, yet 'only differ in degree from those which have 

 been observed in other earthquakes. But the progress 

 of the great sea-wave which was generated by the 

 upheaval of the Peruvian shores and propagated over 

 the whole of the Pacific Ocean differs altogether from 



