THE EARTHQUAKE IN EASTERN MEXICO 



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deepest part gushed great volumes of water. The length of the cleft is esti- 

 mated at 1,000 metres ; its breadth at one metre. The volcano is surrounded 

 by limestone mountains, and stretches southwardly in a calcareous formation. 

 Wherever limestone forms the chief mass of the chain, the effect of the concus- 

 sion was greatest. In the village of Chocaman, on the southeast side of the 

 volcano, between high calcareous ranges, under which extends a stratum of 

 clay slate, the violence of the concussion is most conspicuous. The church 

 built in the sixteenth century fell, but of the three stories of which the tower 

 consisted, the middle one was precipitated outward, so that the highest fell upon 

 the lowest, and remained standing. 



In the city of Cordova the church of the convent of San Antonio, two hun- 

 dred years old, sustained the loss of its cupola and the dome of its nave, while 

 the parish church — a handsome building with three vaulted naves — is so in- 

 jured as to be unfit for divine worship ; the large town hall, with its arcades, the 

 hospital, and many private dwellings were likewise so much damaged as to 

 threaten to fall. 



Orizava, eight miles west from Cordova, though surrounded by high calca- 

 reous ridges, suffered less; the reason of which may be that the town stands on 

 the site of an ancient lake, which, after a bed of from six to eight feet of dam- 

 earth, contains a thick stratum of chalk, and from its porosity propagated the 

 shock Avith less force ; yet damage was not wholly averted. A chur.ch once 



28 s66 



