216 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



THE GREATEST SEA-WAVE EVER KNOWN. 



ON August 13, 1868, one of the most terrible ca- 

 lamities which has ever visited a people befell the un- 

 fortunate inhabitants of Peru. In that land earth- 

 quakes are nearly as common as rain-storms are with 

 us ; and shocks by which whole cities are changed into 

 a heap of ruins are by no means infrequent. Yet even 

 in Peru, " the land of earthquakes," as liumboldt has 

 termed it, no such catastrophe as that of August, 1868, 

 had occurred within the memory of man. It was not 

 one city which was laid in ruins, but a whole empire. 

 Those who perished were counted by tens of thousands, 

 while the property destroyed by the earthquake was 

 valued at millions of pounds sterling. 



Although so many months have passed since this 

 terrible calamity took place, scientific men have been 

 busily engaged until quite recently in endeavoring to 

 ascertain the real significance of the various events 

 which were observed during and after the occurrence 

 of the earthquake. The geographers of Germany have 

 taken a special interest in interpreting the evidence 

 afforded by this great manifestation of Nature's powers. 

 Two papers have been written recently on the great 

 earthquake of August 13, 1868, one by Professor von 

 Hochstetter, the other by Herr von Tsclmdi, which 

 present an interesting account of the various effects. 



