226 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



wave which travelled southward. When we see that, 

 on the contrary, a wave of even greater proportions 

 travelled toward the shores of North America, we 

 seem forced to the conclusion that the centre of the 

 subterranean action must have been so far to the west 

 that the sea-wave generated by it had a free course to 

 the shores of California. 



Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that the 

 wave which swept the shores of Southern California, 

 rising upward of sixty feet above the ordinary sea- 

 level, was absolutely the most imposing of all the 

 indirect effects of the great earthquake. "When we 

 consider that even in San Pedro Bay, fully five thou- 

 sand miles from the centre of disturbance, a wave 

 twice the height of an ordinary house rolled in with 

 unspeakable violence only a few hours after the occur- 

 rence of the earth-throe, we are most strikingly im- 

 pressed with the tremendous energy of the earth's 

 movement. 



Turning to the open ocean, let us track the great 

 wave on its course past the multitudinous islands which 

 dot the surface of the great Pacific. 



The inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, which lie 

 about 6,300 miles from Arica, might have imagined 

 themselves safe from any effects which could be pro- 

 duced by an earthquake taking place so far away from 

 them. But on the night between August 13th and 14th, 

 the sea around this island-group rose in a surprising 



