1835] A GREAT EARTHQUAKE. 301 



beneath our feet like a thin crust over a fluid ; — one second 

 of time has created in the mind a strange idea of insecurity, 

 which hours of reflection would not have produced. In the 

 forest, as a breeze moved the trees, I felt only the earth 

 tremble, but saw no other effect. Captain Fitz Roy and 

 some officers were at the town during the shock, and there 

 the scene was more striking ; for although the houses, 

 from being built of wood, did not fall, they were violently 

 shaken, and the boards creaked and rattled together. The 

 people rushed out of doors in the greatest alarm. It is 

 these accompaniments that create that perfect horror of 

 earthquakes, experienced by all who have thus seen, as 

 well as felt, their efi*ects. Within the forest it was a deeply 

 interesting, but by no means an awe-exciting phenomenon. 

 The tides were very curiously affected. The great shock 

 took place at the time of low water ; and an old woman 

 who was on the beach told me, that the water flowed very 

 quickly, but not in great waves, to high-water mark, ana 

 then as quickly returned to its proper level ; this was also 

 evident by the line of wet sand. This same kind of quick 

 but quiet movement in the tide, happened a few years since 

 at Chiloe, during a slight earthquake, and created much 

 causeless alarm. In the course of the evening there were 

 many weaker shocks, which seemed to produce in the 

 harbour the most complicated currents, and some of great 

 strength. 



March ^th. — We entered the harbour of Concepcion. 

 While the ship was beating up to the anchorage, I landed 

 on the island of Quiriquina. The mayor-domo of the estate 

 quickly rode down to tell me the terrible news of the great 

 earthquake of the 20th : — '* That not a house in Concepcion 

 or Talcahuano (the port) was standing ; that seventy 

 villages were destroyed ; and that a great wave had almost 

 washed away the ruins of Talcahuano." Of this latter 

 statement I soon saw abundant proofs — the whole coast 

 being strewed over with timber and furniture as if a thousand 

 ships had been wrecked. Besides chairs, tables, book-shelves, 

 etc., in great numbers, there were several roofs of cottages, 

 which had been transported almost whole. The store- 

 houses at Talcahuano had been burst open, and great bags 

 of cotton, yerba, and other valuable merchandise were 

 scattered on the shore. During my walk round the island, 

 I observed that numerous fragments of rock, which, from 



