388 On the Earthquake in Chile, 1851. 
I may say, that in less than four minutes, I put upon the stage 
and adjusted a slide and then found and brought to the centre of 
the field of a 3-inch object-glass ten reeorded objects, for each of 
which both sets of numbers were different. It is true that I 
- made haste, but I know no other method by which it could have 
been done in twieé the time. One minute may then be reckoned 
as the maximum time requisite to find any recorded object. How 
great a gain this is, every one will feel, whose time and patience 
have both been many times exhausted in searching to rediscover 
some minute object, before the indicator was invented. 
Arr. XLII.—On the Earthquake of April 2, 1851, in Chile ; 
by Lieut. J. M. Ginuiss, A.M., U. 8. N.* 
front, and the wash-stand diagonally to the right. But reason 
was torpid. ‘Though there was a consciousness of excessive OS 
cillation of the floor, and most infernal subterranean roarings; 
recognition that the pictures of the paper on the opposite wall 
were waving from side to side across the mirror; a conviction 
* From the Report of the U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to Chile, by 
Lieut. Gilliss, vol. i, p- 108. 
t Many of the most intelligent persons in Chile regard earthquakes as due wholly 
to electrical agency ; and as we have no right to reject popular belief until every 
Phase of the phenomenon is satisfactorily explicable without such influence, 1t 8 
er that the occurrence of such remarkable lightni short a time before the 
shock, and in the direction from which it came—should not be omitted. For the 
same reason Humboldt mentions (Rélation Historique, Liv. IV, Chap. 10) “two 
strong shocks simultaneously with a clap of thunder.” : 
