A MIGHTY SEA- WA VE. 



ON May toth, 1876, a tremendous wave swept the Pacific 

 Ocean from Peru northwards, westwards, and southwards, 

 travelling at a rate many times greater than that of the 

 swiftest express train. For reasons best known to them- 

 selves, writers in the newspapers have by almost common 

 consent called this phenomenon a tidal-wave. But the 

 tides had nothing to do with it Unquestionably the 

 wave resulted from the upheaval of the bed of the ocean 

 in some part of that angle of the Pacific Ocean which is 

 bounded by the shores of Peru and Chili. This region 

 has long been celebrated for tremendous submarine and 

 subterranean upheavals. The opinions of geologists and 

 geographers have been divided as to the real origin of the 

 disturbances by which at one time the land, at another 

 time the sea, and at yet other times (oftener, in fact, than 

 either of the others) both land and sea have been shaken 

 as by some mighty imprisoned giant, struggling, like 

 Prometheus, to cast from his limbs the mountain masses 

 which hold them down. Some consider that the seat of 

 the Vulcanian forces lies deep below that part of the chain 

 of the Andes which lies at the apex of the angle just 

 mentioned, and that the direction of their action varies 

 according to the varying conditions under which the im- 

 prisoned gases find vent Others consider that there are 

 two if not several seats of subterranean activity. Yet 

 others suppose that the real seat of disturbance lies beneath 



