A MIGHTY SEA-WAVE. 183 



compared with that of the wave of May, 1876. About twenty 

 minutes after the first earth shock, the sea was seen to retire, 

 as if about to leave the shores wholly dry; but presently 

 its waters returned with tremendous force. A mighty wave, 

 whose length seemed immeasurable, was seen advancing 

 like a dark wall upon the unfortunate town, a large part 

 of which was overwhelmed by it Two ships, the Peruvian 

 corvette America, and the American double-ender Watertree, 

 were carried nearly half a mile to the north of Arica, 

 beyond the railroad which runs to Tacna, and there left 

 stranded high and dry. As the English vice-consul at Arica 

 estimated the height of this enormous wave at fully fifty 

 feet, it would not seem that the account of the wave of May, 

 1876, has been exaggerated, for a much less height is, as 

 we have seen, attributed to it, though, as it carried the 

 IVatertree still further inland, it must have been higher. 

 The small loss of life can be easily understood when we 

 consider that the earthquake was not followed instantly by 

 the sea-wave. Warned by the experience of the earthquake 

 of 1868, which most of them must have remembered, the 

 inhabitants sought safety on the higher grounds until the 

 great wave and its successors had flowed in. We read that 

 the damage done was greater than that caused by the pre- 

 vious calamity, the new buildings erected since 1868 being 

 of a more costly and substantial class. Merchandise from 

 the custom-house and stores was carried by the water to a 

 point on the beach five miles distant. 



At Iquique, in 1868, the great wave was estimated at 

 fifty feet in height We are told that it was black with 

 the mud and slime of the sea bottom. "Those who wit- 

 nessed its progress from the upper balconies of their houses, 

 and presently saw its black mass rushing close beneath their 

 feet, looked on their safety as a miracle. Many buildings 

 were, indeed, washed away, and in the low-lying parts of 

 the town there was a terrible loss of life." In May, 1876, 

 the greatest mischief at Iquique would seem to have been 

 caused by the earthquake, not by the sea-wave, though 



