56 CONNECTION OF THE ELKVATORV 



ands being affected similarly with the coasts iieai* 

 the focus of the disturbance, it appears that the 

 wave first rises in the offing; and as this is of gen- 

 eral occurrence, the cause must be general : I sus- 

 pect we must look to the line where the less dis- 

 turbed waters of the deep ocean join the water 

 nearer the coast, which has partaken of the move- 

 ments of the land, as the place where the great 

 wave is fii'st generated ; it would also appear that 

 the wave is larger or smaller according to the ex- 

 tent of shoal water which has been agitated, together 

 with the bottom on which it rested. 



The most remarkable effect of this earth(juake 

 was the permanent elevation of the land ; it vs^ould 

 pi'obably be far more correct to speak of it as the 

 cause. There can be no doubt that the land round 

 the Bay of Concepcion was upraised two or three 

 feet ; but it deserves notice, that owing to the 

 wave having obliterated the old lines of tidal action 

 on the sloping sandy shores, I could discover no 

 evidence of this fact, except in the united testimony 

 of the inhabitants, that one little rocky shoal, now 

 exposed, was formerly covered with water. At 

 the island of'S. Maria (about thirty miles distant) 

 the elevation was greater; on one part, Captain 

 Fitz Roy found beds of putrid muscle-shells still 

 adhering to the rocks, ten feet above high-water 

 mark : the inhabitants had formerly dived at low- 

 water spring-tides for these shells. The elevation 

 of this province is particularly interesting, fi-om its 

 having been the theatre of several other violent 

 earthquakes, and from the vast numbers of sea- 

 shells scattered over the land, up to a height of 

 certainly 600, and, I believe, of 1000 feet. At Val- 

 paraiso, as I have remarked, similar shells are found 

 at the height of 1300 feet : it is hardly possible to 



