308 CONCEPCION. [chap. xiv. 



The side which fronted the N.E. presented a grand pile of ruins, 

 in the midst of which door-cases and masses of timber stood up, 

 as if floating in a stream. Some of the angular blocks of brick- 

 work were of great dimensions ; and they were rolled to a distance 

 on the level plaza, like fragments of rock at the base of some 

 high mountain. The side walls (running S.W. and N.E.), 

 though exceedingly fractured, yet remained standing ; but the 

 vast buttresses (at right angles to them, and therefore parallel to 

 the walls that fell) were in many cases cut clean off, as if by a 

 chisel, and hurled to the ground. Some square ornaments on the 

 coping of these same walls, were moved by the earthquake into a 

 diagonal position. A similar circumstance was observed after 

 an earthquake at Valparaiso, Calabria, and other places, includ- 

 ing some of the ancient Greek temples.* This twisting dis- 

 placement, at first appears to indicate a vorticose movement 

 beneath each point thus affected ; but this is highly improbable. 

 May it not be caused by a tendency in each stone to arrange 

 itself in some particular position, with respect to the lines of 

 vibration, in a manner somewhat similar to pins on a sheet of 

 paper when shaken ? Generally speaking, arched doorways or 

 windows stood much better than any other part of the buildings. 

 Nevertheless, a poor lame old man, who had been in the habit, 

 during trifling shocks, of crawling to a certain doorway, was 

 this time crushed to pieces. 



I have not attempted to give any detailed description of the 

 appearance of Concepcion, for I feel that it is quite impossible 

 to convey the mingled feelings which I experienced. Several of 

 the officers visited it before me, but their strongest language 

 failed to give a just idea of the scene of desolation. It is a 

 bitter and humiliating thing to see works, which have cost man 

 so much time and labour, overthrown in one minute ; yet com- 

 passion for the inhabitants was almost instantly banished, by the 

 surprise in seeing a state of things produced in a moment of 

 time, which one was accustomed to attribute to a succession of 

 ages. In my opinion, we have scarcely beheld, since leaving 

 England, any sight so deeply interesting. 



In almost every severe earthquake, the neighbouring waters 



* M. Arago in L'Institut, 1839, p. 337. See also Miers's Chile, vol. i. 

 p. 392 ; also Lyell's Principles of Geology, chap, xv., book ii. 



