Letters , Extracts from Correspondence , Announcements, &;c. 333 
make the beasts scramble over the loose mounds to continue our 
way. The mountain here was cracked in every direction, and it 
was as much as spurs could do to make the terrified animals 
progress. 
“ In Quito the tall massive church towers have in many in¬ 
stances, together with some thirty or forty houses, been thrown 
down, and the buildings more or less damaged. Scarcely a 
house or a room has escaped without cracks; some fronts of 
houses lay in heaps in the streets: twelve persons were killed. 
“ Tacunga, Ambato, and Riobamba have escaped entirely, but 
Guano and the provinces have suffered severely. In Guayaquil 
some thirty houses have been thrown down. 
“ The general belief is that Pichincha has been the cause of 
all, but I imagine it to have been the cure, for it appears that 
the nearer Quito the slighter the shocks; and this opinion is 
partly confirmed by the following extract from Professor Jame¬ 
son’s letter :— ( The people here (Quito) believe that the volcano 
of Pichincha has been the cause of the catastrophe,—an opinion 
in which I cannot concur, otherwise the effect would have been 
more local. In fact, the city, considering the height of the 
public buildings, has suffered comparatively little damage, whilst 
some villages in the neighbouring province, such as Cotocachi 
and Aluntagui, are in a heap of ruins/ The shock in Guaya¬ 
quil must have also been extremely severe. In Perucho it was de¬ 
scribed as flowing from east to west. But C. R. Buckalew, Esq., 
the United States Minister, who was in his patio at the moment, 
says he distinctly saw the wave pass along the ridge of the roof 
of his house, which lies north and south, and cross that portion 
which is east and west, and that the whole city below was for the 
moment in motion like a wave of the sea, followed by a cloud of 
dust from the tumbled building materials.” 
Mr. Osbert Salvin, one of the most active contributors to 
‘The Ibis/ left England on the 17th of May last, by the 
W. I. M. Steamer ‘ Atrato/ on his return to Guatemala, where, 
being about to become a resident, he will neglect no opportu¬ 
nity of investigating the natural products of this little-known 
vol. i. 2 a 
