300 



EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. [Ch. XVHI. 



fine weather. This providential occurrence was also, of 

 course, of the greatest service ia ionumerable ways to the 

 suffering population, and gave opportunity of maMng pro- 

 vision for immediate shelter and protection. - 



Those who were on shipboard in the bay thought they 

 saw a phosphoric luminosity over the city at the time of the 

 occurrence, though whether this was not conjured up by 

 their own vivid imagination admits of doubt. More pro- 

 bable is the story that at the moment of the shock they felt 

 as though their ships had struck upon^a rock, a circumstance 

 often recorded ia similar catastrophes^ 



The city of ManUla itself seems by a curious fatality to 

 have been the very centre of the oscillation, and not only 

 was every pile of buildings therein shaken to its very founda- 

 tions, but people who were in the town were thrown off their 

 feet by the violence of the shock ; while those outside hardly 

 knew that anything unusual had happened. Those driving 

 in the Calzada state that they scarcely felt any movement ; 

 and great was their consternation and astonishment, on 

 arriving at their . homes to find them in ruins, and their 

 friends wounded and dying. It is perhaps less remarkable 

 that persons in closely contiguous spots in the town felt the 

 shock in very various degrees of intensity — some having 

 been sensible of but little movement, while others, perhaps, 

 in their terror magnified the effects which they personally 

 experienced. For some time afterwards slight shocks were 

 felt nearly every week ; but no great and destructive oscilla- 

 tion has taken place since that memorable day. 



It is melancholy to contemplate the position of a com- 

 munity such as that of Manilla, which has grown to a certain 

 degree prosperous and important, and has raised public 

 edifices of an imposing character at very considerable ex- 



