EARTJ 



115 



bly, and was several days in reaching its former level ; while on this, no such thing was ob- 

 served." 



Only two vessels bound to Valparaiso felt the shock. One was forty miles southwest of the 

 ]>,it. and tin- other ;i like distance to the northwest, and then-fore they were some fifty-seven 

 milr> apart 1'iitil he learned, after anchoring, that an earthquake had occurred on the 

 morning of the 2d, th.- master of the former wan fully persuaded he had passed over a reef of 

 rocks ; the other felt no shock whatever, though at the time designated the crew had heard 

 explosions like distant discharges of heavy artillery. San Antonio, near the mouth of the 

 Manle. iind Talcahuano, both experienced a tremor; Melipilla, between San Antonio and the 

 capital, felt it severely. There was a violent shake at Quillota, also, and San Felipe de Acon- 

 cagua suffered some injury. Even the Copiap6 papers mention a "temblor" on the morning of 

 the 2d ; but nothing special was remarked, and it passed as one of those occurring almost daily. 



Efforts to obtain reliable data for determining the velocity of earth-waves meet with little 

 encouragement among those with whom "manana" (to-morrow) is proverbial, and who have not 

 yet learned that a few minutes are worthy of appreciation. Moreover, people generally are too 

 much alarmed when the shock comes. Eternity occupies more of their thoughts than time; and 

 had they self-possession to record the instants, probably no two time-keepers in the city agree 

 within several minutes. Of the great shock one Talca paper says, "this morning a quarter before 

 seven;" the other, "at twenty minutes past six in the morning." Even in Valparaiso, where 

 government has placed a clock visible to nearly all the town, the papers differ two minutes, 

 though the custom-house clock was stopped by the shock at 6A. 42m. But here are the Santiago 

 mean times at which the greatest shock was felt at each place, with its bearing and distance 

 from the capital. 



No possible supposition will reconcile them. 



For days it may be said weeks' after, the whole district of country disturbed by the principal 

 shocks was visited by tremors. At Santiago the times of four were noted on the 3d; only one 

 on the 4th ; two or three on the 5th ; and so on up to the 20th ; indeed, for several months their 

 occurrence was more frequent than during the same period of the preceding year. Having 

 passed from the afternoon of the 6th at Aguila, the hacienda of a friend within the deep bay 

 of the mountains, there were opportunities to experience some of them in the open fields. Of 

 two or three it may not be uninteresting to quote the brief memoranda. 



APRIL 7. 



There was a shock at 1A. 51m. p. M., which lasted twenty-three seconds, and was quite 

 strong. It was preceded, nearly twenty seconds, by a rumbling noise that approached from 

 the northward, and the earth had a very perceptible rocking motion. At Santiago it con- 

 tinued only two seconds ! 



