EARTHQUAKES. 



Justice, was for some time occupied in adjusting these 

 difficulties. Not less remarkable were the effects of 

 circular or rotatory concussions. Walls beyond the 

 town were twisted round without being flung down; 

 rows of trees which had been parallel were deflected in 

 the most remarkable manner ; and the direction of 

 the ridges of fields covered with various kinds of 

 grain was observed to be altered by the effects of the 

 earthquake. 



Humboldt, it may be mentioned, explains in a 

 somewhat unnatural manner the peculiar effects we 

 have spoken of above. He conceives that the fact of 

 the furniture of one house being found under the 

 ruins of another, seems to show that the movement 

 was first directed downwards, then horizontally, and 

 then upwards. This appears to us wholly improbable. 

 In the first place it has been almost constantly observed 

 that the upward motion (in earthquakes which exhibit 

 perpendicular vibrations) precedes the downward ; and 

 secondly, had the downward motion taken place first, 

 it seems most probable that neighbouring houses would 

 have sunk side by side, so that the following horizontal 

 movement would only have resulted in the forms of 

 destruction ordinarily observed in earthquakes. The 

 more natural view seems to be that there was first a 

 violent upward movement, flinging the less firmly 

 built houses bodily upwards, and merely destroying 

 others ; then immediately followed a downward move- 

 ment and a horizontal one, bringing the latter class of 

 houses beneath the falling ruins of the others. Or it 



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