184 PLEASANT WA YS IN SCIENCE. 



this also was destructive in its own way. " Iquique," we 

 are told, " is in ruins. The movement was experienced 

 there at the same time and with the same force [as at 

 Arica]. Its duration was exactly four minutes and a third. 

 It proceeded from the south-east, exactly from the direction 

 of Ilaga." The houses built of wood and cane tumbled down 

 at the first attacks, lamps were broken, and the burning oil 

 spread over and set fire to the ruins. Three companies of 

 firemen, German, Italian, and Peruvian, were instantly at 

 their posts, although it was difficult to maintain an upright 

 position, shock following shock with dreadful rapidity. 

 Nearly 400,000 quintals of nitrate in the stores at Iquique 

 and the adjacent ports of Molle and Pisagua were destroyed. 

 The British barque Caprera and a German barque sank, and 

 all the coasting craft and small boats in the harbour were 

 broken to pieces and drifted about in every direction. 



At Chanavaya, a small town at the guano-loading de'pot 

 known as Pabellon de Pica, only two houses were left 

 standing out of four hundred. Here the earthquake shock 

 was specially severe. In some places the earth opened in 

 crevices seventeen yards deep and the whole surface of the 

 ground was changed. 



At Punta de Eobos two vessels were lost, and fourteen 

 ships more or less damaged, by the wave. Antofagasta, Mexil- 

 lones, Tocopilla, and Cobigo, on the Bolivian coast, suffered 

 simultaneously from the earthquake and the sea-wave. The 

 sea completely swept the business portion of Antofagasta 

 during four hours. Here a singular phenomenon was 

 noticed. For some time the atmosphere was illuminated 

 with a ruddy glow. It was supposed that this light came 

 from the volcano of San Pedro de Atacama, a few leagues 

 inland from Antofagasta. A somewhat similar phenomenon 

 was noticed at Tacna during the earthquake of August, 1868. 

 About three hours after the earthquake an intensely brilliant 

 light made its appearance above the neighbouring mountains. 

 It lasted fully half an hour, and was ascribed to the eruption 

 of some as yet unknown volcano. 



