No. 245.
Mr. Gibbs to Mr. Evarts.

No. 149.]

Sir: On the night of the 9th instant a most extraordinary phenomenon was noticed on this coast, which has caused considerable damage, as far as heard from, and fears of more, which will not be dissipated until further information can be received.

It was not what is generally called a “tidal wave,” but a gentle rising of the sea. It came from the south, as its effects were noticed some hours in Mollendo before it appeared in Callao. Mollendo is about four hundred miles southeast.

Persons of respectability, who saw the movement, state that the sea would rise gradually, swelling, without rolling or billows, some 10 feet above the ordinary tide-mark, and then recede in the same manner, going 4 to 6 feet below low-water mark. This motion was repeated several times, in fact for hours, and also a most extraordinary movement of eddies and whirlpools.

There is a telegraph-cable between Chorillos (a small town on the coast nine miles south of Lima) and Valparaiso, Chili. This cable has connections inshore-lines laid to various ports on the coast. The chief manager of the company informed me to-day that the line has been interrupted at Arica, about one hundred miles south of Mollendo, which interruption, it is supposed, has been the parting of the cable by this extraordinary movement of the sea.

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I am, &c.,

RICHARD GIBBS.