48 CONOBPCION. 



held. To a person who had formerly known them, 

 it possibly might have been still more impressive ; 

 for the ruins were so mingled together, and the 

 whole scene possessed so little the air of a habita- 

 ble place, that it was scarcely possible to imagine 

 its former condition. The earthquake commenced 

 at half jjast eleven o'clock in the forenoon. If it 

 had happened in the middle of the night, the greater 

 number of the inhabitants (which in this one prov- 

 ince amount to many thousands) must have per- 

 ished, instead of less than a hundred : as it was, 

 the invariable practice of running out of doors at 

 the first trembling of the ground alone saved them. 

 In Concepcion, each house, or row of houses, stood 

 by itself, a heap or line of ruins ; but in Talca- 

 huano, owing to the great wave, little more than 

 one layer of bricks, tiles, and timber, with here 

 and there part of a wall left standing, could be 

 distinguished. From this circumstance, Concep- 

 cion, although not so completely desolated, was a 

 more terrible, and, if I may so call it, picturesque 

 sight. The first shock was very sudden. The 

 mayor-domo at Quiriquina told me, that the first 

 notice he received of it was finding both the horse 

 he rode and himself rolling together on the ground. 

 Rising up, he was again thrown down. He also 

 told me that some cows which were standing on 

 the steep side of the island were rolled into the 

 sea. The great wave caused the destruction of 

 many cattle ; on one low island, near the head of 

 the bay, seventy animals were washed off and 

 drowned. It is generally thought that this has 

 been the worst earthquake ever recorded in Chile ; 

 but as the very severe ones occur only after long 

 intervals, this cannot easily be known ; nor, indeed, 

 would a much worse shock have made any great 

 difference, for the ruin was now complete. Innu- 



