206 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



shores of North America. The projecting shores of 

 northern Peru and Ecuador could not have failed to 

 divert the sea-wave towards the west ; and though a 

 reflected wave might have reached California, it would 

 only have been after a considerable interval of time, 

 and with dimensions much less than those of the sea- 

 wave which travelled southwards. When we see that, 

 on the contrary, a wave of even greater proportions 

 travelled towards the shores of North America, we 

 seem forced to the conclusion that the centre of the 

 subterranean action must have been so far to the west 

 that the sea-wave generated by it had a free course to 

 the shores of California. 



Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that the 

 wave which swept the shores of Southern California, 

 rising upwards of sixty feet above the ordinary sea-level, 

 was absolutely the most imposing of all the indirect 

 effects of the great earthquake. When we consider that 

 even in San Pedro Bay, fully five thousand miles from 

 the centre of disturbance, a wave twice the height of 

 an ordinary house rolled in with unspeakable violence 

 only a few hours after the occurrence of the earth - 

 throe, we are most strikingly impressed with the tre- 

 mendous energy of the earth's movement. 



Turning to the open ocean, let us track the great 

 wave on its course past the multitudinous islands which 

 dot the surface of the great Pacific. 



The inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, which lie 

 about 6,300 miles from Arica, might have imagined 

 themselves safe from any effects which could be pro- 



