220 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



a mile to the north of Arica, beyond the railroad 

 which runs to Tacna, and there left stranded high and 

 dry. This enormous wave was considered by the Eng- 

 lish vice-consul at Arica to have been fully fifty feet in 

 height. 



At Chala, three such waves swept in after the first 

 shocks of earthquake. - They overflowed nearly the 

 whole of the town, the sea passing more than half a 

 mile beyond its usual limits. 



At Islay and Iquique similar phenomena were mani- 

 fested. At the former town the sea flowed in no less 

 than five times, and each time with greater force. 

 Afterward the motion gradually diminished, but even 

 an hour and a half after the commencement of this 

 strange disturbance, the waves still ran forty feet 

 above the ordinary level. At Iquique, the people 

 beheld the inrushing wave while it was still a great 

 way off. A dark-blue mass of water, some fifty feet 

 in height, was seen sweeping in upon the town with 

 inconceivable rapidity. An island lying before the 

 harbor was completely submerged by the great wave, 

 which still came rushing on, black with the mud and 

 slime it had swept from the sea-bottom.' Those who 

 witnessed its progress from the upper balconies of their 

 houses, and presently saw its black mass rushing close 

 beneath their feet, looked on their safety as a miracle. 

 Many buildings were indeed washed away, and in the 

 low-lying parts of the town there was a terrible loss of 



