S"! CONCEPCION. 



quake at Valparaiso, Calabria, and other places, 

 including some of the ancient Greek temples.* 

 This twisting displacement at first appears to indi- 

 cate a vorticose movement beneath each point thus 

 affected; but this is highly improbable. May it 

 nrf)t be caused by a tendency in each stone to ar- 

 range 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 1 

 Generally speaking, arched doorways or windows 

 stood much better than any other part of the build- 

 ings. Nevertheless, a poor lame old man, who had 

 been in the habit, during trifling shocks, of crawl- 

 ing to a certain doorway, was this time crushed to 

 pieces. 



I have not attempted to give any detailed de- 

 scription of the appearance of Concepcion, for I 

 feel that it is quite impossible to convey the min- 

 gled feelings which I experienced. Several of the 

 officers visited it before me, but their strongest lan- 

 guage 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 com- 

 passion 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 ac- 

 customed 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 neigh- 

 bouring 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 



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

 vol. i., p. 392 ; also Lyell's Principles of Geology, chap, xv., 

 book 11. 



