166 EARTHQUAKES. 



the greatest, is said to have been sixty feet in height, 

 Fortunately the devastating effect which this would have 

 produced was partially warded off by cliffs. 



At the time of the Jamaica earthquake (1692) the sea 

 drew back for a distance of a mile. 



In South America sea waves are common accompani- 

 ments of large earthquakes, and they are regarded with 

 more fear than the actual earthquakes. 



On October 28, 1724, Lima was destroyed, and on 

 the evening of that day the sea rose in a wave eighty feet 

 over Callao. Out of twenty-three ships in the harbour, 

 nineteen were sunk, and four others were carried far 

 inland. The first movement which is usually observed is 

 a drawing back of the waters, and this is so well known 

 to precede the inrush of large waves, that many of the 

 inhabitants in South America have used it as a timely 

 warning to escape towards the hills, and save themselves 

 from the terrible reaction which, on more than one occasion, 

 has so quickly followed. 



At Caldera, near to Copiapo, on May 9, 1877, which was 

 the time when Iquique was devastated, the first motion 

 which was observed in the sea was that it silently drew 

 back for over 200 feet, after which it rose as a wave over 

 five feet high. At some places the water came in as 

 waves from twenty to eighty feet in height. 



At Talcahuano, on the coast of Chili, in 1835, there was 

 a repetition of the phenomena which accompanied the 

 destruction of Penco in 1730 and 1751. About forty 

 minutes after the first shock, the sea suddenly retired. 

 Soon afterwards, however, it returned in a wave twenty 

 feet high, the reflex of which swept everything towards 

 the sea. These phenomena were repeated three times.* 



When Caliao and Lima were destroyed, in 1746, the 

 ' Ant. Jour. Sci. vol. xiv. p. 209. 



