CHAPTER XIV 

 SOME FAMOUS EARTHQUAKES 



OF all earthquakes perhaps the best known and 

 remembered is that of Lisbon on November 1st, 

 1755, and volumes have been written about it. 

 The first shocks of this earthquake came without other 

 warning than a deep sound resembling thunder, which 

 appeared to proceed from beneath the ground, and it 

 was immediately followed by a quaking which threw down 

 the entire city of Lisbon. In six minutes sixty thousand 

 persons perished. The day was almost immediately turned 

 into night, owing to the thickness of the dust from the 

 ruined city. A few minutes afterwards fire sprang up 

 among the ruins. The new Lisbon quay, which had 

 been built entirely of marble, suddenly sank down into 

 the bay with an immense crowd of people, who thronged 

 to it for safety, and it is said that none of the bodies 

 of the drowned were ever seen again. Following hard 

 on the first shocks the sea retired from the land, carry- 

 ing boats and other craft with it, only to return in 

 a great wave, which completed the destruction in and 

 about the city. This great sea wave, the mightiest that 

 has ever been described in connection with an earthquake, 



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