358 Letter of Dr. B. A. Gould. 
Earthquake of October, 1871. 
You may remember hearing of the calamity to the Argentine 
city of Oran, which was destroyed by an earthquake on the 
25th October, 1871. This was the most northerly town 12 the 
republic, situated about 4'14™ W. from Greenwich, and 28 
10’ S. lat., and contained about 4500 inhabitants, of whom 
perhaps a thirtieth part perished in the ruins.) The houses 
story: the ter class consisting of single rooms arranged 
round one or more open court-yar er, of a a 
occasions is far less than would be the case were the building 
material harder, or the structures more elevated. This . pe 
tunate town, having just been rebuilt from its ruins, has no 
suffered the same fate for the second time. ian 
On the 7th July, I received from Major Host, 4 er" 
engineer officer with whom I had just concluded arrangem 
for determining the longitude of the city of Salta ase 
24° 15’, longitude about 44 28™ from Greenwich), a oe , 
message informing me that on the day preceding, at 3b 54 tasted 
Salta had been visited by a violent earthquake, which “s5 at 
for 28 seconds, and consisted of about five severe shoe a) 
Intervals of 5 or 6 seconds,—the motion being irom ©" ued 
5. W., followed by a series of slight vibrations which continu® 
until about 10 p. mM. 
Later accounts brought information that the city of Jujuy 
