EARTHQUAKE IN PERU, 1746. 269 



as though they had run aground. Perhaps the most extraordinary 

 circumstance which occurred during this earthquake was the sub- 

 sidence of the new quay called Cats de Prada, built entirely of 

 marble, and at an immense expense. A great concourse of peo- 

 ple had fled to this quay, as a spot where they might be safe from 

 the falling ruins, when suddenly it sank down, with all the peo- 

 ple on it, and not one of the bodies ever rose to the surface, and a 

 great number of boats, and small vessels, anchored at the quay 

 were swallowed up with it, as in a whirlpool, no fragments of 

 them ever appeared, and the water at the place of the quay has 

 now a depth of upwards of 100 fathoms. At the time of the 

 subsidence of the quay, the bar was seen dry from shore to shore, 

 then suddenly the sea came rolling in, in a wave about fifty feet 

 high. About noon there was another shock, when the walls of 

 several houses, which the preceding shocks had not overthrown, 

 were seen to suddenly gape open, and then to close again so ex- 

 actly that no fissure or joint could be perceived. The extent of 

 country affected by this earthquake is almost incredible. The 

 movement was most violent in Spain, Portugal, and the north of 

 Africa, but slighter shocks were felt from Greenland and Iceland, 

 to Norway, Sweden, Germany, Britain, Switzerland, France, 

 Morocco, Fez, and even in the West Indies; and on Lake Onta- 

 rio in America. The rate at which the undulatory movement 

 was propagated was about twenty miles a minute, judging from 

 the interval of time when the shock was first felt at Lisbon and 

 the time of its occurrence at other distant places. 



In the year 1746, an earthquake occurred which overthrew Li- 

 ma, in Peru, and inundated its port of Callao, so that only 200 

 out of 4000 persons escaped. Terrible as were these earthquakes 

 yet they seem to have been inferior to some which have occurred 

 at a more early date, in many parts of Asia. Earthquakes are 

 by no means of uncommon occurrence, scarcely a year passes 

 without several. They are now observed with great attention by 

 philosphers, and are of the utmost importance in a geological 

 point of view. Awful as it must appear to see the ground heav- 

 ing and swelling like the troubled sea, hills tottering, and solid 

 walls and towns tumbling into ruins, and the earth gaping open, 



