224 CONCEPCION. [CHAP. xiv. 



The different resistance offered by the walls, according to their 

 direction, was well exemplified in the case of the Cathedral. 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 brickwork 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, including some of 

 the ancient Greek temples.* This twisting displacement, 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, dunng 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 appear- 

 ance 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 compassion 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 of the 

 sea are said to have been greatly agitated. The disturbance seems 

 generally, as in the case of Concepcion, to have been of two kinds : 

 first, at the instant of the shock, the water swells high up on the beach 

 with a gentle motion, and then as quietly retreats; secondly, some 

 time afterwards, the whole body of the sea retires from the coast, and 

 then returns in waves of over-whelming force. The first movement 

 seems to be an immediate consequence of the earthquake affecting 

 differently a fluid and a solid, so that their respective levels are slightly 

 deranged ; but the second case is a far more important phenomenon. 

 During most earthquakes, and especially during those on the west 

 s oast of America, it is certain that the first great movement of the 



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

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



