EARTHQUAKES—SEA AND WAVES ROARING.
Our Rest, of June, 1877, says:— “Presuming that all our readers may not have read the particulars of the recent disaster by earthquake and tidal waves on the South Pacific coast, we have concluded to publish the following graphic account from the Star and Herald of Panama. It seems but a short time since we recorded the destruction of about a quarter of a million of souls by the dreadful tidal wave that swept over a portion of India. Since that time, there has been a continuous famine in the same country. Even now, after so long a time, the government is obliged to employ over a million men on its works, to keep them from starving, and it is said it supports gratuitously over 300,000 people. In place of decreasing, there was in May an increase of about 85,000 in one week. The prospects for the forthcoming crops are far from flattering, so that it is difficult to tell where the trouble will end. “The dreadful famine in China still continues, and hundreds of thousands, we are told, are doomed to perish from starvation. The cholera is also raging in some parts of India, and an increase is feared. “Thus we see that we are truly living in perilous times. Wars, famines, earthquakes, the sea and waves roaring, and men’s hearts failing them for looking after those things that are coming on the earth.” The Star and Herald says:— “On the ninth of May the towns of Arica, Iquique, Punta de Lobos, Pabellon de Pica, Chanavaya, Huanillas, Tocapilla, Cobija, Mejillones de Bolivia, Antofagasta and Canaral, were visited by an earthquake and tidal wave, and are nearly all destroyed. About six hundred lives were lost. The destruction of Pabellon is estimated at $20,000,000, confined mostly to the coast, although the town of Tarapaca, twenty-three leagues inland, and the villages of Picamatilla and Canchones far in the interior, are more or less ruined. The shipping of guano from the southern deposits will be indefinitely suspended, as all facilities in the way of launches, chutes, wharves, water condensers and buildings of all kinds, have been swept away. The destruction of, and the damage to, shipping has been very great, and was attended by very serious loss of life. “At Mollendy the railway was torn up by the sea, three hundred feet, and at Ilo the railway was also injured. At Arica the people were preparing temporary fortifications to repel the threatened assault of the rebel ram Huascar at the very moment when the roar of the earthquake was heard. The shocks were very numerous, and caused immense damage. The sea was suddenly perceived to recede from the beach, and a wave from ten to fifteen feet high rolled upon the shore, carrying all before it. Eight times was repeated this assault of the ocean, and four miles of the embankment of the railway melted away like sand. Locomotives, cars, and rails were hurled about by the sea like so many playthings and left a tumbled mass of rubbish. The United States steamer Wateree, stranded in 1868, was lifted bodily and floated two miles north of her old position. The cable buoy was moved a quarter of a mile northwards. Merchandise from the custom house and stores were carried five miles distant. The damage done was greater than that of the calamity of 1868. The earthquake had levelled the custom house, railway station, submarine cable office, hotel, British Consulate, the steamship agency, and many private dwellings. The people passed the night on the hills. Thieves began to rob, when the troops fired upon them, killing and wounding several. “Iquique, built of wood and cane, tumbled down at the first onset. The lamps were broken, and the burning oil, spreading over the debris, started a general conflagration. Three companies of firemen were instantly at their posts, although it was difficult to maintain an upright position, shock following shock, with dreadful regularity. To procure water, the two best fire-engines were stationed on the beach. Just then the cry arose, ‘The sea! the sea!’ and the waves rushed in. The engines were carried out by the reflux, and the fire continued unopposed. Three elements of destruction were busy at one moment—fire, water, and the earthquake. The affrighted people left the city to its fate, flying to the neighboring eminences. The fire destroyed a large portion of the town, the earthquake leveled nearly all the rest, and water covers the ruins which it took out in its reflux. The water condensers along the shore are ruined. This is an irreparable loss for Iquique, as no potable water is found there. Nearly 400,000 quintals of nitrate at Iquique and the adjacent forts of Molle and Pisagua, were destroyed. A small loss of life took place, probably ten persons in all. Coasting craft and small boats in the harbor were broken to pieces. As in Arica, robbery of goods lying in the streets was attempted, but the guards of citizens took such severe measures that the robbers were speedily checked. “Away up on the pampas, eleven miles from Iquique, the splendid nitrate establishment, ‘La Nueva Carolina,’ was completely destroyed. “The sufferings of the people of Iquique were intense. The absence of water and the destruction of the principal stores added to their hardships. It is estimated that the damage done in Iquique will amount to nearly 4,000,000 soles. “Chanavaya, at the guano loading deposit known as Pabellon de Pica with four hundred houses, has only two standing. There were no fire-engines in the town, and the sea came in and extinguished the flames, but as it retired it carried off all that remained of the place. In one of the guano cuttings thirty laborers were buried by the falling earth. Among the shipping the havoc was terrible. “The town of Tarabaca, two or three leagues inland, and the villages of Picamatilla and Canchones are more or less ruined. The loss of life is reported as not being great. “The earthquake was especially severe at Chanavaya. The earth opened fifteen metres in depth, and the whole surface of the ground changed. At least two hundred people were killed. Bodies were floating in the bay, and a pestilence was feared. At Huanillas, a guano loading station, the damage inflicted was fearful. All the houses were destroyed. The guano cuts have fallen in, and, as at Pabellon, all the loading must be suspended for at least two months. The wave which succeeded the earthquake, and completed the work of destruction, was nearly sixty feet in height. Many vessels were lost here, together with several persons on board. In short, everything except a few huts at the back of the town has been destroyed. “At Mejillones the tidal wave was sixty-five feet high. Two-thirds of the town is completely obliterated. The guano chutes, wharves, launches, boats, water distilleries, railway stations, locomotives, cars, and furniture—all swallowed up. Six persons were drowned. “At Tocapilla, little or nothing remains in the town. “The mine called ‘La Pena Blanca,’ four miles to the southward, sank in, smothering two hundred workmen, of whom forty were Cornish miners. “Cobija, the principal town on the Bolivian coast, has lost three-fourths of its houses. The wave thirty-five feet high swept along the main business street, and left it level as a desert. Wharves and launches were all carried out to sea. “As soon as this lamentable intelligence reached Lima, the government chartered a steamer, and organizing a relief commission, loaded the vessel with provisions, clothing, etc., together with 50,000 gallons of water, and dispatched her on the 16th for the South, one hundred thousand soles in silver coin also forming part of her cargo, to be distributed among the unfortunate. A commission of engineers accompany the expedition. It has been urged by the government to recommend rebuilding the ruined towns on sites which may offer greater security, being more remote from the shore, since this is the second instance of a similar calamity on positions actually occupied. Subscriptions are being made in Lima and Callao for the relief of the distressed. “The northern parts of Peru were damaged but little, though the sea was running remarkably high. “The captain of the steamer John Elder reports that when twenty-three miles west of Antofagasta, coming at full speed, his ship was completely stopped by the shock of the earthquake, and she remained almost stationary for five minutes. The passengers believing she had struck on a reef, soundings were taken immediately, but no bottom was found at twenty fathoms.” “Captain Charles MacLoon, of the ship Geneva, sunk at Huanillos, in the great earthquake on the Pacific coast on the 9th ultimo, has arrived, and tells the story of his experiences. He says that, though apparently safely anchored, his ship became entangled with others near it, as they tossed wildly about crashing against one another, and sunk almost immediately in fifteen fathoms of water. On the first alarm, he came up from between decks; it was about half past eight P. M. There had been several shocks during the previous twenty days, but he had completed his cargo of guano, and was expecting to sail next morning. “Aside from the frightful rumbling sound, his attention was arrested by the extraordinary phenomenon of a shore mountain above being so much agitated that rocks became detached, and rattled down toward the sea, resembling balls of fire. Furthermore, the water at the anchorage suddenly receded, so that ships in eight fathoms touched bottom. At the same time, it was observed that the ships were swinging round and round in opposite directions, the anchor chains becoming entangled beneath the copper, and the yards and masts interlocking, while the air resounded with falling spars and the crash of bulwarks. Water also came whirling in like a maelstrom, causing the Geneva to swing round at a rate of eight or ten knots an hour, in great circles, until she struck against a rock which tore out part of her bottom. The ship was forced violently in an opposite direction and went down. Other vessels were as violently driven ashore or went to the bottom, as in the case of the English ship Avonmore, Captain Canfield, which took down with her the captain’s wife, three children, and several others. “Captain MacLoon says it seemed to him from the sulphurous or electrical appearance of the mountains, that a volcano was bursting out of its sides. Rocks were tumbling about with frightful noise, and everything was lighted up. He thinks the damage to the shipping was caused not so much by the tidal wave as by the upward rush of the water and the rotary currents, driving the ships repeatedly against one another.”