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114 THE GREAT TIDAL WAVE, MAY, 1877. 
t 
marked wave of enormous proportions should have been propa- 
gated over the largest ocean track of our globe, by an earthquake 
whose direct action was limited to a relatively small region, and 
that region not situated in the centre but on one side of the 
wide area traversed by the wave. 
The origin of the great sea wave seems to have been traced in 
the first instance to rumblin: gs of the earth at Arequipa, which is 
situated in the neizhbourhood of the volcanic mountain of Misti, 
which occasionally has been known to chm streams of lava, dust 
an 3, &e. n the evening of the 12th August, or on si: 
morning of the 13th, the inhabitante Shad. so far as the 
aware, 110 reason to be frig itened, as the mountain was perfectly 
quiet until 5 o’clock in the evening, when slight sensations of a. 
disturbance were visible. Half'a miuute later, oho wever, a terrible 
noise was heard beneath the earth; a second ‘shock more violent 
than the first was felt; and then began a swaying motion, 
gradually increasing in intensity. 
Von Tschudi ear “ And now there followed during two 
or three minutes, rrible scene. The swaying motion which 
had hitherto prev ‘ited changed into fierce vertical upheaval. The 
subterranean roaring increased in the most terrifying manner; 
then were heard the heart-piercing shrieks of the wretched 
would have suffocated thousands. Notwithstanding that the 
shocks lasted only a few minutes, they were sufficiently severe to 
demolish the whole town, not one building remained un- 
jure t Tacua and Arica the shocks were felt, but with less 
severity than at Arequipa. At Arica the earthq uake was followed 
by an immense tidal wave which come ‘the. Peruvian poe 
“America” and the U.S. vessel ‘“‘ Wate ’ from the har 
nearly is dee a mile north of the town, ai there lett them aenee 
high an 
ebb and flow. The lini bof the wane whan ru the Pacific 1s 
reached here on Friday after being felt at New Zealand ; 
but the great wave of 1868 is —— to have trave elled across 
the Pacific at ta speed of thre anhour. 
