ted was the centre of subterranean action;
but there can be no doubt it was very deep indeed, because otherwise
the shock felt in towns separated from each other by hundreds of miles
could not have been so nearly contemporaneous. Therefore the portion
of the earth's crust upheaved must have been enormous, for the length
of the region where the direct effects of the earthquake were
perceived is estimated by Professor von Hochsteter at no less than
two hundred and forty miles. The breadth of the region is unknown,
because the slope of the Andes on one side and the ocean on the other
concealed the motion of the earth's crust.

The great ocean-wave swept, as we have said, in all directions around
the scene of the earth-throe. Over a large part of its course its
passage was unnoted, because in the open sea the effects even of so
vast an undulation could not be perceived. A ship would slowly rise as
the crest of the great wave passed under her, and then as slowly sink
again. This may seem strange, at first sight, when it is remembered
that in reality the great sea-wave we are considering swept at the
rate of three or four hundred sea-miles an hour over the larger part
of the Pacific. But when the true character of ocean-waves is
understood, when it is remembered that there is no transference of the
water itself at this enormous rate, but simply a transmission of
motion (precisely as when in a high wind waves sweep rapidly over a
cornfield, while yet each cornstalk remains fixed in the ground), it
will be seen that the effects of the great sea-wave could only be
perceived near the shore. Even there, as we shall presently see, there
was much to convey the impression that the land itself was rising and
falling rather than that the deep was moved. But among the hundreds of
ships which were sailing upon the Pacific when its length and breadth
were traversed by the great sea-wave, there was not one in which any
unusual motion was perceived.

In somewhat less than three hours after the occurrence of the
earthquake the ocean-wave inundated the port of Coquimbo, on the
Chilean seaboard, some eight hundred miles from Arica. An hour or so
later it had reached Constitucion, four hundred and fifty miles
farther south; and here for some three hours the sea rose and fell
with strange violence. Farther south, along the shore of Chile, even
to the island of Chiloe, the shore-wave travelled, though with
continually diminishing force, owing,