o-thirds, and of those exposed dead, full
four-fifths are Mulattos.

The important annual surplus of deaths over births is a matter of
serious consideration for Lima. The above tables show, in the course of
ten months, a surplus of 562 deaths. By a comparison of the lists of
births and deaths from 1826 to 1842, I find that on an average there are
annually 550 more deaths than births. It would lead me too far to
endeavor to investigate all the grounds of this disparity, but I may
observe that one of the causes, unquestionably, is the common, though
punishable crime of producing abortion.

Along the whole coast of Peru the atmosphere is almost uniformly in a
state of repose. It is not illuminated by the lightning's flash, or
disturbed by the roar of the thunder: no deluges of rain, no fierce
hurricanes destroy the fruits of the fields, and with them the hopes of
the husbandman. Even fire appears here to have lost its annihilating
power, and the work of human hands seems to be sacred from its
attack.[37] But the mildness of the elements above ground is frightfully
counterbalanced by their subterranean fury.

Lima is frequently visited by earthquakes, and several times the city
has been reduced to a mass of ruins. At an average forty-five shocks may
be counted on in a year. Most of them occur in the latter part of
October, in November, December, January, May, and June. Experience gives
reason to expect the visitation of two desolating earthquakes in a
century. The period between the two is from forty to sixty years. The
most considerable catastrophes experienced in Lima since Europeans have
visited the west coast of South America, happened in the years 1586,
1630, 1687, 1713, 1746, 1806. There is reason to fear that in the course
of a few years this city may be the prey of another such visitation.

The slighter shocks are sometimes accompanied by a noise; at other
times, they are merely perceptible by the motion of the earth. The
subterraneous noises are manifold. For the most part they resemble the
rattling of a heavy loaded wagon, driven rapidly over arches. They
usually accompany the shock, seldom precede it, and only in a few
cases do they follow it; sounding like distant thunder. On one
occasion the noise appeared to me like a groan from the depth of the
earth, accompanied by sounds like the crepitation of wood in
partitions when an old house is consumed by fire.

Of the movements, the horizontal vibrations are th