58 Proceedings of the British Association. 



merit of the ground. On the morning of the 18th there was a 

 much more violent movement, the earth heaving at once up and 

 down, and also laterally, accompanied by a frightful subterranean 

 noise. The falling of houses all around, the cries of ^he peo- 

 ple, the bowlings of animals, produced a scene that cannot be 

 described. The agitation seemed to have reached the utmost 

 possible height, when suddenly the earth, as if striving to get rid 

 of some mighty load, made a movement more terrible than ever, 

 in every direction, and in one minute the work of destruction was 

 completed. The cathedral in falling, destroyed a numerous con- 

 gregation of females who had assembled there, and were endeav- 

 oring to escape ; but the priests, who remained under an arch, 

 were saved. It is remarkable that while some quarters had nearly 

 every house demolished, others were comparatively uninjured. 

 Rain, (here a rare phenomenon,) fell almost every day during six 

 weeks ; and at Arica, on the first week of October, there came 

 down a deluge, such as had not been witnessed for half a century. 

 The river which supplies Tacna with water, remained undisturbed, 

 but others were changed in their courses, and one altogether dis- 

 appeared. The earthquake was felt many hundred miles to the 

 south, as far as the desert of Atacama. At Suto, about 40 miles 

 distant, fissures were made in the ground, whence issued a dark 

 colored fluid. In the province of Tarapaca, villages were over- 

 thrown ; and one, which stood in a ravine, was buried with all 

 its inhabitants. To the north its ravages were equally extensive. 

 The villages of Sanio, distant 30 miles, and of Coquimbo, dis- 

 tant 60, were both destroyed. Moquehua, 120 miles off, suffered 

 severe damage ; and Arequipa was violently shaken, but with 

 little injury. The effects extended even to the lofty peaks of 

 Upper Peru. Tacora, 15,000 feet above the sea, had its church 

 thrown down. When the atmosphere cleared after the calamity, 

 that mighty range, as seen from Tacna, presented in many parts, 

 a new outline. Large masses had been detached or slid down 

 into the valleys or ravines, leaving many elevated peaks denuded 

 of their most prominent features. Mr. Scott, engineer, then em- 

 ployed at Achozumio, about 14,500 feet high, describes the shocks 

 there as terrific, and the noise as if an immense mass of porce- 

 lain had, after being raised in the air, been then let fall, and dashed 

 to pieces. By his telescope, he saw the masses falling from the 

 mountains, one of them leaving a space as large as St. Enoch's 



