Note XXVII-14 — Chapter XXVII · CENTRAL AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS. 1886.

Apr. 23, 1830, Guat. experienced one said to have been the most severe since that of 1773. Feb. and Sept. 1831, a great part of San Salvador was ruined. The authorities and most of the people fled to Cojutepeque. This was the sixth time the city had been more or less damaged by earthquakes. Sept. 2, 1841, Cartago, in Costa R., was nearly levelled to the ground; of 3,000 houses previously existing, not 100 remained entire; of the 8 churches, the smallest and ugliest was the only one escaping uninjured. May 1844, the city of Granada was nearly ruined; the town of Nicaragua was greatly damaged, the lake of this name rising and falling several times, as if having a tide. Amatitlan, Petapa, Palin, and other places near the volcano of Pacaya, hardly had a house left standing in the end of March and in beginning of April 1845. In the repub. of Guat. shocks have been repeatedly experienced, those of 1884 and 1885 causing devastation in Amatitlan. San Salvador experienced heavy ones in 1575, 1593, 1625, 1656, and 1798, and was completely ruined in 1839, 1854, and 1873, and several other towns in the republic fared almost as badly in the latter year. Oct. 2, 1878, there was loss of life. Dec. 27-29, 1879, Ilopango, Candelaria, and other places were demolished. In Costa R. the destruction of Puntarenita occurred Aug. 4, 1854; and in 1882 the towns of Alajuela, San Ramon, Grecia, and Heredia were damaged, with heavy loss of life. In Dec. 1867, a tidal wave swallowed the island of Zapotilla, in Golfo Dulce, drowning all the inhabitants. The earthquake shocks seem to be of two kinds, namely, the perpendicular, which are felt only in the vicinity of volcanoes, and the horizontal, reaching great distances from the places where they originate, being very unequal in their progress, in some parts rocking the ground violently, and in others, in their direct line, nearer their source, being but slightly felt. Dunlop's Cent. Am., 290-3; Squier's Cent. Am., 298, 304-7, 465; Squier's Travels, ii. 85, 120-6; Ponton's Earthquakes, 69, 76-7; Reichardt, Cent. Am., 83-4; Nouv. Annales Voy., clxv. 360-1; lxxxv. 264; lciii. 121; Montúfar, Reseña Hist., iii. 608-9; Wagner, Costa R., Pref. viii.; Costa R., Col. Ley., vii. 101-3; Id., Gaceta, Sept. 10, 1853; July 15, Aug. 5, 26, Sept. 2, 1854; Id., Boletin Ofic., Aug. 31, Dec. 23, 1854; Niles' Reg., lxi. 257; Pim's Gate of the Pac., 26; Mission Scient. au Mex. Geol., 13-16, 511-12; Wells' Hond., 233; Salv., El Siglo, May 28, June 3, 1851, Sept. 3, 1852; Id., Diario Ofic., Oct. 5-27, 1878; Jan. 13, 14, 1880; Id., Gaceta, May 20, 1854; Id., El Rol, Oct. 13, 20, Nov. 10, 17, Dec. 1, 1854; Feb. 9, 1855; Guat., Gaceta, Oct. 21, 1853; May 5, 1854; Nic., Gaceta, March 26, 1864; Feb. 10, 1866; Jan. 18, May 9, Oct. 31, 1868; Jan. 8, June 18, Aug. 20, 1870; La Union de Nic., Jan. 12, 1861; El Porvenir de Nic., Oct. 15, 1871; U. S. Gov. Doc., H. Ex. Doc., Cong. 43, Sess. 1, i. pt 1, 796, 808, 814; Id., Cong. 44, Sess. 1, i. pt 1, 129; Uriarte, Terremotos de Cent. Am., in Mex. Soc. Geog., Boletin, ii. 189-95; Mex., Eco Mercantil, Apr. 24, 1882; Pan. Star and Herald, Jan. 5, 7, 11, 1886. Very full information from 1469 to 1882 in Guat., Revista Observatorio Meteor., i. 24-39.