doubtless, to the resistance
which the irregularities of the shore opposed to its progress.

The northerly shore-wave seems to have been more considerable; and a
moment's study of a chart of the two Americas will show that this
circumstance is highly significant. When we remember that the
principal effects of the land-shock were experienced within that angle
which the Peruvian Andes form with the long north-and-south line of
the Chilean and Bolivian Andes, we see at once that, had the centre of
the subterranean action been near the scene where the most destructive
effects were perceived, no sea-wave, or but a small one, could have
been sent toward the shores of North America. The projecting shores of
northern Peru and Ecuador could not have failed to divert the sea-wave
toward the west; and though a reflected wave might have reached
California, it would only have been after a considerable interval of
time, and with dimensions much less than those of the sea-wave which
travelled southward. When we see that, on the contrary, a wave of even
greater proportions travelled toward the shores of North America, we
seem forced to the conclusion that the centre of the subterranean
action must have been so far to the west that the sea-wave generated
by it had a free course to the shores of California.

Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that the wave which swept the
shores of Southern California, rising upward of sixty feet above the
ordinary sea-level, was absolutely the most imposing of all the
indirect effects of the great earthquake. When we consider that even
in San Pedro Bay, fully five thousand miles from the centre of
disturbance, a wave twice the height of an ordinary house rolled in
with unspeakable violence only a few hours after the occurrence of the
earth-throe, we are most strikingly impressed with the tremendous
energy of the earth's movement.

Turning to the open ocean, let us track the great wave on its course
past the multitudinous islands which dot the surface of the Pacific.

The inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, which lie about six thousand
three hundred miles from Arica, might have imagined themselves safe
from any effects which could be produced by an earthquake taking place
so far away from them. But on the night between August 13th and 14th,
the sea around this island group rose in a surprising manner, insomuch
that many thought the islands were sinking, and would shortly subside
altogether ben