Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
At length the evening got very cold, and I became very sleepy, and determined to turn in;
leaving orders to my boys, who slept nearer the door, to wake me in case the house was in
danger of falling. But I miscalculated my apathy, for I could not sleep much. The shocks
continued at intervals of half an hour or an hour all night, just strong enough to wake me
thoroughly each time and keep me on the alert ready to jump up in case of danger. I was
therefore very glad when morning came. Most of the inhabitants had not been to bed at all,
and some had stayed out of doors all night. For the next two days and nights shocks still
continued at short intervals, and several times a day for a week, showing that there was
some very extensive disturbance beneath our portion of the earth's crust. How vast the
forces at work really are can only be properly appreciated when, after feeling their effects,
we look abroad over the wide expanse of hill and valley, plain and mountain, and thus real-
ize in a slight degree the immense mass of matter heaved and shaken. The sensation pro-
duced by an earthquake is never to be forgotten. We feel ourselves in the grasp of a power to
which the wildest fury of the winds and waves are as nothing; yet the effect is more a thrill
of awe than the terror which the more boisterous war of the elements produces. There is a
mystery and an uncertainty as to the amount of danger we incur, which gives greater play to
the imagination, and to the influences of hope and fear. These remarks apply only to a mod-
erate earthquake. A severe one is the most destructive and the most horrible catastrophe to
which human beings can be exposed.
A few days after the earthquake I took a walk to Tondáno, a large village of about 7,000
inhabitants, situated at the lower end of the lake of the same name. I dined with the Control-
leur, Mr. Bensneider, who had been my guide to Tomohón. He had a fine large house, in
which he often received visitors; and his garden was the best for flowers which I had seen in
the tropics, although there was no great variety. It was he who introduced the rose hedges
which give such a charming appearance to the villages; and to him is chiefly due the general
neatness and good order that everywhere prevail. I consulted him about a fresh locality, as I
found Rurúkan too much in the clouds, dreadfully damp and gloomy, and with a general
stagnation of bird and insect life. He recommended me a village some distance beyond the
lake, near which was a large forest, where he thought I should find plenty of birds. As he
was going himself in a few days I decided to accompany him.
After dinner I asked him for a guide to the celebrated waterfall on the outlet stream of the
lake. It is situated about a mile and half below the village, where a slight rising ground
closes in the basin, and evidently once formed the shore of the lake, Here the river enters a
gorge, very narrow and tortuous, along which it rushes furiously for a short distance and
then plunges into a great chasm, forming the head of a large valley. Just above the fall the
