102 EARTHQUAKES. 



quite Hack, and, from the bubbles of air or gas that escaped, was apparently boiling in every 

 direction. It also exhaled a sulphurous smell, and destroyed shoals of fish, whose dead car- 

 casses added to the variety of floating objects. Whilst the waves were coming in, two explo- 

 sions were seen : one, a column of dark smoke, like a tower, outside the island of Quiriquina ; 

 the other resembled a huge jet of aqueous vapor, thrown up in the bay of San Vincente, which 

 is separated from that of Talcahuano by a narrow isthmus. At the disappearance of the latter, 

 a whirlpool marked the spot, as though a cavity had been opened, into which the sea was 

 pouring. At one place in Talcahuano, and several near Concepcion, the ground swelled like 

 large bubbles, and then bursting, discharged quantities of black and foetid water. 



Two days after these calamities, and while yet their only shelters were rudely constructed 

 huts, arbors, or tents, a violent rain-storm came, completing the ruin of the little property 

 they had rescued from the ocean or fallen walls, and to jeopardise their very means of sub- 

 sistence by destruction of the grain and flour, now wholly exposed to the weather. 



At Colcura, midway between Talcahuano and Arauco, as well as at the mouth of the river 

 Tubul, six great waves were counted. Some of these, at the first-named village, reached objects 

 70 feet above high-water mark. 



Los Angeles, on the great plain, and 66 miles S.E. from Concepcion, was almost destroyed 

 at the same instant. There were two violent shocks within three minutes, during the whole of 

 which time the earth was in motion. The island of Mocha was so shaken that people were 

 unable to stand. In a boat, lying east and west on the rocks, water ran from one end to the 

 other, as though alternately lifted and put down ; but there was no washing from side to side. 

 The sea broke higher than it had ever been known to do during heavy gales, and the island 

 was found to have been permanently elevated about two feet. 



" At Yaldivia the shock began gently, increased gradually during two minutes, was at its 

 strongest (at 11A. 40m.) about one minute, and then diminished. The motion was undulating 

 and regular, like waves rolling from west to east, but strong ; it lasted nearly ten minutes. 

 * * * Some thought the motion was from S.W. to N.E. ; but Mr. Darwin, and a person 

 with him, thought the reverse. The river swelled or rose at the same time, and quickly fell to 

 its former height. In the port, the sea swelled suddenly upon the shore to high-water mark, 

 though it was then nearly the time of low water, and quickly fell again."* There were many 

 shocks during the afternoon, though none of them were preceded or accompanied by noise. 



Chiloe, yet more distant, seems to have been more violently moved, though no great injury 

 resulted from it. There, a premonitory tremor was felt twenty minutes before the great shock, 

 or rather the succession of shocks, extending through six to eight minutes without noise. The 

 motion was undulating from N.E. to S.W. , and forest- trees waved nearly to the ground in 

 those directions. The ebb and swell of the sea was observed here also, though its volume 

 was not greater than at Valdivia. " At the moment of the shock, Osorno threw up a thick 

 volume of dark-blue smoke ; and directly that passed, a large crater was seen forming on the 

 S.S.E. side of the mountain : it boiled up lava, and threw up burning stones to some height'; 

 but the smoke soon hid the mountain. When seen a few days afterwards, it showed very little 

 smoke by day ; but by night the new crater, as well as the old one on its truncated summit, 

 shone with a steady light. This volcano appears to have remained in activity throughout the 

 year. The action of Minchinmadom was similar to that of Osorno. Two curling pillars 

 of white smoke had been observed all the morning ; but, during the shock, numerous small 

 chimneys seemed to be smoking within the great crater, and lava was thrown out of a small 

 one just above the lower verge of the snow. Eight days afterwards this little crater was 

 extinct ; but at night five small red flames were seen in a line equidistant from each other, like 

 those in the streets of a village. By the 1st of March its activity was much diminished; but 

 on the 26th there was a smart earthquake, and at night the five fires were again seen. A 



* Journal Royal Geographical Society, Vol. VI. 



