300 AN EARTHQUAKE. [chap. xiv. 



carriages quite rotten. Mr. Wickham remarked to the 

 commanding officer, that with one discharge they would 

 certainly all fall to pieces. The poor man, trying to put 

 a good face upon it, gravely replied, '* No, I am sure, sir, 

 they would stand too ! " The Spaniards must have intended 

 to have made this place impregnable. There is now lying 

 in the middle of the courtyard a little mountain of mortar, 

 which rivals in hardness the rock on which it is placed. 

 It was brought from Chile, and cost 7000 dollars. The 

 revolution having broken out, prevented its being applied 

 to any purpose, and now it remains a monument of the 

 fallen greatness of Spain. 



I wanted to go to a house about a mile and a half distant, 

 but my guide said it was quite impossible to penetrate the 

 wood in a straight line. He offered, however, to lead me, 

 by following obscure cattle-tracks, the shortest way : the 

 walk, nevertheless, took no less than three hours ! This 

 man is employed in hunting strayed cattle ; yet, well as he 

 must know the woods, he was not long since lost for two 

 whole days, and had nothing to eat. These facts convey 

 a good idea of the impracticability of the forests of these 

 countries. A question often occurred to me — how long 

 does any vestige of a fallen tree remain ? This man showed 

 me one which a party of fugitive royalists had cut down 

 fourteen years ago ; and taking this as a criterion, I should 

 think a bole a foot and a half in diameter would in thirty 

 years be changed into a heap of mould. 



February 20th. — This day has been memorable in the 

 annals of Valdivia, for the most severe earthquake ex- 

 perienced by the oldest inhabitant. I happened to be on 

 shore, and was lying down in the wood to rest myself. It 

 came on suddenly, and lasted two minutes, but the time 

 appeared much longer. The rocking of the ground was 

 very sensible. The undulations appeared to my companion 

 and myself to come from due east, whilst others thought 

 they proceeded from south-west : this shows how difficult 

 it sometimes is to perceive the direction of the vibrations. 

 There was no difficulty in standing upright, but the motion 

 made me almost giddy ; it was something like the move- 

 ment of a vessel In a little cross-ripple, or still more like 

 that felt by a person skating over thin ice, which bends 

 under the weight of his body. 



A bad earthquake at once destroys our oldest associa- 

 lions ; the earth, the very emblem of solidity, has moved 



