392 On the Earthquake in Chile, 1851. 
in the same direction were drawn almost out of the walls, ‘and 
masonry had fallen in piles. It was found necessary to close it 
forthwith. The central dome of the old palace and its western 
parapets were so broken that they were immediately pulled down 
to prevent further injury. Examination of these fractures showed 
that bricks had given way in many cases when mortar would 
not; and adobe walls had more tenacity than burned bricks, 
yielding to the flexure of the foundation without entire prostra- 
tion. In every instance where objects could fall freely, they had 
gone off to the northward; though if not precipitated at the first 
shock, they generally jolted in the opposite direction. Hast and 
west of the line of motion through the Plaza, much less damage 
was done, a fact also peculiar in the December earthquake. 
The loss of life was small. Three persons only were ascer- 
tained to have been killed, and some thirty or more wounded. 
Of the fatal cases—all women—two deaths had been caused by 
the fall of the cornice in the church of San Francisco, as the 
congregation rushed out; and the third was a poor girl who 
ved a victim to a custom of the country. In conformity with 
this custom, she could not be left alone, in an open house, whilst 
her mother attended early mass, and had been locked in the 
second story. When the earthquake came, she leaped in terror 
rom the balcony, and the mother returned to find her a corpse. 
There was a striking peculiarity about the great shock. Like 
a tense chord rudely struck, its vibration was perceptible for two 
hours without intermission; and its subsidence was so g as 
to leave one almost in doubt when it actually ceased. In addi- 
tion to this, a somewhat similar vibration from 6% 30™ to 84 30™ 
p.., and a multitude of “slight tremors,” we have the recorded 
times of eighteen sharp earthquakes before midnight. Two of 
the last, following at an interval of two seconds, appeared the 
