
544 EARTHQUAKES. 
corded on the group. Houses were destroyed, cliffs hurled 
down, fissures opened in the ground, the whole earth seemed 
in violent motion, and an earthquake wave drove the sea 
over the southern coast in places to a height of twenty feet, 
sweeping away all the shore villages. Five days later lava 
broke out on the higher slopes of Mauna Loa, and flowed 
into the sea. Kilauea, at the moment of the great earth- 
quake of April 2d, began to empty itself by some subter- 
ranean channel, and is now five hundred feet deeper than in 
1865. This whole eruption and earthquake, more remarka- 
ble than any of the others of the past year, deserves a fuller . 
description than can be given here. The newspaper reports 
are filled with errors and misstatements. 
Finally, in this series of disturbances, we have the terrible 
earthquake which, on the 13th of August last, caused so great 
destruction of life and property on the coasts of Chili, Peru, 
and Ecuador. At Arica, lat. 18° 30’ S., long. 70° 25! W., 
the rumbling sound as of distant thunder, so usual a forerun- 
ner, preceded this earthquake, and almost immediately the 
rocking motion of the earth commenced. Houses trembled 
with increasing force, until they fell in crashing ruin. The 
earth opened in several places in almost regular clefts from 
one to three inches wide, and as these closed they sent ® cloud 
of dust to mingle with that from the falling buildings. Gas 
of a most suffocating nature, came from these fissures, and had 
it remained long, all animal life must have perished, but after 
three undulations, each severer than the preceding ones po 
cloud of dust and gas which overhung all, dispersed; and the 
light again appeared. The gas remained in all about 3 
minute and a half. Quakes at short intervals succeeded, 
and subterranean explosions, and now all the survivors fl 
to the hills, taking their most precious property, for the se? 
was fast receding, and they well knew the terrible cone 
quences of that unnatural tide. Soon the current change ee 
the ocean came back in a huge wall of water, dragging with it 
all the vessels, among them the large U. S. steamer wie’ 




