478 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



There were no fires for the good reason that there is almost 

 nothing in these houses to burn and never any fires kept in 

 the kitchens at night. 



By degrees the Costa Rican families near us drew towards 

 the Plaza and left us Americans near the hotel where we all 

 preferred to remain. Fortunately the night was not ex- 

 ceptionally cold and was clear save for an occasional mist. 

 At two o'clock came another violent shock. I do not know 

 what caused the strange rumbling roar that preceded each 

 hard shock — whether it was actually the rumbling of the 

 shaken earth or of the walls as the wave motion struck one 

 house after another, but the roar was present and was one 

 of the most nerve-racking parts of the experience. Once 

 out on the streets, in fact, we thought there was practically 

 no danger from earthquakes here, as the houses were so low 

 and the streets so wide that the risk from tiles or falling 

 walls seemed almost nothing. Indoors, at least in the well- 

 built houses, the chief danger appeared to be in falling 

 plaster or in tiles that might conceivably be driven through 

 the wooden ceilings. The natives pulled out mattresses and 

 blankets and bunked m.ore or less comfortably in the street. 

 Some brought tables and made little sheltered beds for the 

 children by pinning blankets around the table legs. We 

 Americans from the hotel, a picturesque, blanket-draped 

 tribe of Indians, walked up and down the street and as noth- 

 ing more happened for nearly an hour some of us ventured 

 to return to our rooms, but were quickly driven out again 

 by another violent shock. After this warning we fetched 

 out chairs and camped in the street and as the next four or 

 five shocks were quite mild we fell asleep under the stars, 

 until we began to slip back to our rooms about five o'clock. 



In the morning, after coffee, we walked about the streets 

 and were amazed that such earthquakes did so little damage, 

 relatively. The tile roofs suffered terribly — looking through 



