480 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



thirteenth) had struck the earth — the end of the world was 

 approaching — and so on. A large proportion of the popula- 

 tion had moved outdoors and there was plenty of time and 

 opportunity to distribute and embroider these legends. As 

 it was also said that all wires were down, no one knew how 

 the information had been received. It soon proved that wires 

 were not down and that Cartago had suffered more than 

 most places and when the full reports came in it appeared 

 that the disturbance was localized in the central valleys. 

 It was stated that both Poas and Irazu showed a slight but 

 unmistakable column of steam, at 1.30 A. M, on the thir- 

 teenth, immediately after the third and most violent shock, 

 which was credible enough. A "rosy glow in the sky" was 

 also spoken of, but certainly there was no such glow visible 

 to us. 



On the morning of April it; there was a tremendous out- 

 burst of bombs, ringing of bells and so on and a large reli- 

 gious procession passed through the streets, accompanied by 

 a greater number of people than we saw following any of 

 the Easter processions. This was a special service to implore 

 the intercession of the saints and prevent the recurrence of 

 earthquakes. 



A more thorough examination of the town and the neigh- 

 boring country showed that the damage was greater than 

 we had at first thought. Few houses were actually thrown 

 down, but many had lost much of their roofing and plaster or 

 were so badly cracked that repairs seemed out of the ques- 

 tion. Many families left their houses and camped nearby, in 

 all sorts of temporary shelters. The Government shipped a 

 number of army tents and quantities of canvas, but these 

 were not sufficient, so that tents were constructed of old 

 quilts, carpets, hides, sheets, blankets, boards, scraps of 

 galvanized iron, boxes, coffee sacks — any and everything 

 that could by any possibility be stretched or fastened to 



