504 SEE— ORIGIN OF HIMALAYA MOUNTAINS. [April i8, 



destroyed. Not one building remained uninjured, and there were few which 

 did not lie in shapeless heaps of ruins." 



This description was drawn for the phenomena observed at 

 Arequipa, but that it would serve equally well for Arica is suffi- 

 ciently indicated by the accompanying photographs of the town as it 

 was before and after the earthquake. A more terrible record of 

 desolation could hardly be imagined. 



With this brief but striking description of the earthquake, we 

 may now turn to the seismic sea wave at Arica, and here I shall 

 again quote Proctor's account, which is based on the elaborate tech- 

 nical memoir prepared by Professor F. Von Hochstetter in the 

 Sitzungsherichte of the Vienna Academy of Sciences for 1868, 

 Vol. LVIIL, Abth. II. Proctor's account runs thus: 



" At Arica the sea wave produced even more destructive effects than had 

 been caused by the earthquake. About twenty minutes after the first earth- 

 shock (1. e., 5 :25 P. M.) 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 over- 

 whelmed by it. Two ships, the Peruvian corvette America aiid the United 

 States ' double-ender ' Wateree 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. This enormous wave was considered by the English Vice-Consul 

 at Arica to have been fully fifty feet in height. 



At Chala, three such waves swept in after the first shocks of earthquake. 

 They overflowed nearly the whole of the town, the sea passing more than 

 half a mile beyond its usual limits. 



At Islay and Iquique similar phenomena were manifested. At the 

 former town the sea flowed in no less than five times, and each time with 

 greater force. Afterwards the motion gradually diminished, but even an 

 hour and a half after the commencement of this strange disturbance, the 

 waves still ran forty feet above the ordinary level. At Iquique, the people 

 beheld the inrushing wave whilst it was still a great way off. A dark blue 

 mass of water, some fifty feet in height, was seen sweeping in upon the town 

 with inconceivable rapidity. An island lying before the harbor was com- 

 pletely submerged by the great wave, which still came rushing on, black with 

 the mud and slime it had swept from the sea bottom. Those who witnessed 

 its progress from the upper balconies of their houses, and presently saw its 

 black mass close beneath their feet, looked on their safety as a miracle. 

 Many buildings were indeed washed away, and in the lowlying parts of the 

 town there was a terrible loss of life. After passing far inland the wave 



