EARTHQUAKES. 173 



In the earthquake of Biobamba, of which the celebrated 

 Valencian botanist, Don Jose Cavanilles, gave the earliest 

 account, the following phenomena are deserving of special 

 attention : fissures which alternately opened and closed 

 again, so that men saved themselves by extending both 

 arms in order to prevent their sinking ; the disappearance 

 of entire caravans of riders or loaded mules (recuas), some of 

 which disappeared through transverse fissures suddenly open- 

 ing in their path, whilst others, flying back, escaped the 

 danger ; such violent oscillations (non-simultaneous elevation 

 iind depression) of neighbouring portions of the ground, that 

 people standing upon the choir of a church at a height of 

 more than 12 feet, got upon the pavement of the street 

 without falling ; the sinking of massive houses, 19 in which the 

 inhabitants could open inner doors, and for two whole days, 

 before they were released by excavations, passed uninjured 

 from room to room, procured lights, fed upon supplies acci- 

 dentally discovered, and disputed with each other regarding 

 the probability of their rescue ; and the disappearance of 

 such great masses of stones and building materials. Old 

 Riobamba contained churches and monasteries amongst 

 houses of several stories ; and yet, when I took the plan of 

 the destroyed city, I only found in the ruins heaps of stone 

 of 8 to 10 feet in height. In the south-western part of Old 

 Hiobamba (the former Barrio de Sigchuguaicu) a mine- 

 like explosion, the effect of a force from below upwards, was 

 distinctly perceptible. On the Cerro de la Culca, a hill of 

 some hundred feet in height, which rises above the Cerro de 

 Cambicarca situated to the north of it, there lies stony rub- 

 bish mixed with human bones. Translator^ movements, in a 

 horizontal direction, by which avenues of trees become 

 displaced, without being uprooted, or fragments of culti- 

 vated ground of very different kinds mutually displace 

 each other, have occurred repeatedly in Quito, as well as 



19 Upon the displacement of buildings and plantations during the 

 earthquake of Calabria, see Ly ell's Principles of Geology, vol. i, pp. 484 

 491. Upon escapes in fissures during the great earthquake of Rio- 

 bamba, see my Relation Historique, tome ii, p. 642. As a remarkable 

 example of the closing of a fissure it must be mentioned that, according 

 to Scacchi's report, during the celebrated earthquake (in the summer 

 of 1851), in the Neapolitan province of Basilicata, a hen was found 

 Caught by both feet in the street pavement in Barile, near Melfi, 



