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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
March, 1861. Nothing met my eye but desolation and ruins. For a mile 
around, on every side, nothing but a chaotic mass of destruction was visible, 
the debris of a large city razed to the ground in an instant. On approaching 
the Church of Santo Domingo, I saw lying about its precincts human 
skeletons and portions of the human form protruding from beneath the 
masonry. In many parts of the city I saw the same horrible exhibition — 
skulls, arms, legs, &c., lying about, some still undecayed. At last I retired 
to my quarters, meditating upon the dreadful catastrophe which had in a few 
seconds turned a gay and beautiful city into an enormous graveyard. 
As late as June lash, more than one thousand persons were 
killed, and many thousands injured, by an earthquake which 
destroyed in a moment the town of Manilla. In volcanic 
districts, moreover, we learn that those paroxysmal earth- 
quakes occur by which whole districts of land are permanently 
elevated or depressed; and these effects of earthquakes should 
be especially noted. In Chili, three hundred shocks of earth- 
quakes were counted between 20th of February and the 4th 
of March, 1835, and the coast was permanently elevated. 
Admiral Fitzroy found beds of mussels, chitons, and limpets 
in a putrid state, but still adhering to the rocks, and raised 
ten feet above high-water mark. Mr. Darwin found similar 
shells at Valparaiso, at the height of 1,300 feet, and had no 
doubt that those shell-beds were elevated to their present 
position by a series of earthquake shocks which caused succes- 
sive small uprisings. On the 19th of November, 1822, a 
most destructive earthquake occurred on the coast of Chili, 
the shock of which was felt throughout a space of 1,200 miles 
from north to south, and an extent of country was elevated 
which was calculated to equal half the area of France. A 
similar history of upraised shells, sea-weeds, and other marine 
remains, was recorded at the time by Mrs. Graham. Sir Charles 
Ly ell's celebrated proofs of the elevation and subsidence of the 
coast of the Bay of Baise, and that the relative level of land 
and sea has there changed twice since the Christian era, are too 
well known to need description. As an example of a more 
recent elevation of the earth's crust, we may mention the 
instance brought forward by Sir Charles Lyell, in a Lecture 
delivered before the Boyal Institution in 1 856. It occurred in 
the previous year (1855) in New Zealand, simultaneously with 
a very severe earthquake ; and an elevation of upwards of five 
feet, on the north side of Cook's Straits, affected the tide of 
the river Hutt to such an extent that it was almost excluded ; 
while a depression on the other side of Cook's Straits caused 
the tides to flow up the river Wairua many miles higher than 
before the alteration of the land level by the earthquake. A 
regular “ fault ” was also exposed to view for the instruction of 
