460 
VOYAGK OF THE POTOMAC. 
[December, 
litters, and mules and muleteers, in tlae extent of the pass called | 
Salinas de Guaura. 
. But the most affecting of all the sights was presented by the \ 
shore, along which the sea was constantly throwing up dead 
bodies on every successive wave. There also were seen frag- 
ments of dead bodies, which the terrible action of the sea, and 
the materials commingling with the waters, had separated in the 
most shocking manner. 
Of the twenty-three ships, large and small, which were an- 
chored in the port, there were foundered nineteen ; and as they 
were driven over the town, their anchors caught in the houses, 
dragging parts of them along to where all were dashed to pieces, 
far up the road to Lima ! The ships-of-war San Fermin, el San 
Antonio, el Michelot, and the Succoro, shared the general fate ! 
The spot to which the San Fermin was driven is pointed out at 
the present day, and is designated by the erection of a cross, a 
little to the right of the road which leads to Lima, and about, half 
a mile from the beach ! 
By inspecting the records of that period it has been ascertained, 
that on the same night, and but a short time before the shock was 
felt in Lima and Callao, the sea rose and extended in about six 
hundred yards from its usual boundary at Conception, latitude 
37° south, in Chili. A few days before this, a hot and scorching 
wind was felt in Santiago, which seemed to wither and consume 
•every thing over which it passed. - ^■ 
What a field is here presented for philosophical speculation ! 
Is the whole range of South America, west of the Andes, resting 
on and slumbering over unfathomable caverns of combustible ma- 
terials ? And are not these connected beneath ? — or how else 
could they communicate with each other, with almost the same 
rapidity that sound passes through the air? i ; 
It has been ascertained, that the phenomena of earthquakes 
are more frequent between the spring and summer; and that 
when they do happen during other portions of the year, they are 
most frequent in autumn. The hours are generally those of dark- 
ness ; two or three hours after sunset ; or at the close of the zo- 
diacal light ; but perhaps more frequently about the first dawn 
of day. - 
