A GREAT SEA- WAVE. 197 



experienced, which, though severe, seems to have 

 worked little mischief. Half a minute later, however, 

 a terrible noise was heard beneath the earth ; a second 

 shock more violent than the first was felt ; and then 

 began the swaying motion, gradually increasing in in- 

 tensity. In the course of the first minute this motion 

 had become so violent that the inhabitants ran in 

 terror out of their houses into the streets and squares. 

 In the next two minutes the swaying movement had 

 so increased that the more lightly-built houses were 

 cast to the ground, and the flying people could scarcely 

 keep their feet. ' And now,' says Von Tschudi, 

 * there followed during two or three minutes a terrible 

 scene. The swaying motion which had hitherto pre- 

 vailed changed into fierce vertical upheaval. The 

 subterranean roaring increased in the most terrifying 

 manner : then were heard the heart-piercing shrieks 

 of the wretched people, the bursting of walls, the 

 crashing fall of houses and churches, while over all 

 rolled thick clouds of a yellowish-black dust, which, 

 had they been poured forth many minutes longer, 

 would have suffocated thousands.' Although the shock 

 had lasted but a few minutes, the whole town was de- 

 stroyed. Not one building remained uninjured, and 

 there were few which did not lie in shapeless heaps of 

 ruins. 



At Tacna and Arica, the earth-shock was less 

 severe, but strange and terrible phenomena followed 

 it. At the former place a circumstance occurred, the 

 cause and nature of which yet remain a mystery. 



