40 Account of the Earthquake in Chili. 
have diminished in a pretty exact proportion to its distance from 
Valparaiso. is 
Its effects are thus described by an Englishman, tededinds at 
Concon, near the mouth of the river named in the maps ‘“ Rio 
Quillota.” Concon is about fifteen miles N.N.E. of Valparaiso, as _ 
the crow flies. 
“ At half-past ten, on the night of the 19th iauiedheal I felt 
the first oscillation. I was writing at the time; starting from my 
chair, I paused for an instant, expecting the shock would subside, 
as others had done; but the falling of glasses from the sideboard, 
the cracking of the timbers, and the rattling of the tiles from the 
roof, fully apprized the whole family of their danger, and all ran 
out of the house. The house was violently agitated, and was 
falling to pieces, but freed from the apprehension of being buried 
in the ruins, my attention was forcibly drawn to the phenomena, 
which I endeavoured to observe as accurately as possible. Scarcely, 
however, was this resolution taken, and before the first shock had 
entirely subsided, a second and much more violent one succeeded; 
this was accompanied by noise, which appeared to be deep seated 
in the earth, perpendicularly to the spot on which we stood. The 
duration of this shock was about two minutes; it was succeeded 
by a third, also accompanied by noise, less loud than that which 
accompanied the preceding shock. The shock was less violent 
than either of the two former shocks, and of less duration. These 
shocks occupied about five minutes of time. Shocks, at intervals, 
of four and five minutes, continued for nearly an hour, after which, 
they became less frequent during the remainder of the night, and 
of very different intensities, some being rather severe, and others 
hardly perceptible. The three principal shocks may be said to con- 
stitute the earthquake. 
“« At the commencement of the earthquake, the atmosphere was, 
as is usual at this time of the year in this country, quite free from 
clouds, the moon and stars shone with splendour; there was no 
atmospheric indication of change of any sort, either before or after 
the earthquake. Some persons say they saw an unusual light in 
the horizon to the southward, but I, who was expecting some 
