1S35] EFFECT ON JUAN FERNANDET:. 309 



adhering to the rocks, ten leet above high-water mark : the 

 inhabitants had formerly dived at low-water spring-tides 

 for these shells. The elevation of this province is par- 

 ticularly interesting, from 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 

 Valparaiso, as I have remarked, similar shells are found 

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

 that this great elevation has been effected by successive 

 small uprisings, such as that which accompanied or caused 

 the earthquake of this year, and likewise by an insensibly 

 slow rise, which is certainly in progress on some parts of 

 this coast. 



The island of Juan Fernandez, 360 miles to the N. E., 

 was, at the time of the great shock of the 20th, violently 

 shaken, so that the trees beat against each other, and a 

 volcano burst forth under water close to the shore : these 

 facts are remarkable because this island, during the 

 earthquake of 1751, was then also affected more violently 

 than other places at an equal distance from Concepcion, 

 and this seems to show some subterranean connection 

 between these two points. Chiloe, about 340 miles south- 

 ward of Concepcion, appears to have been shaken more 

 strongly than the intermediate district of Valdivia, where 

 the volcano of Villarica was noways affected, whilst in 

 the Cordillera in front of Chiloe, two of the volcanoes burst 

 forth at the same instant in violent action. These two 

 volcanoes, and some neighbouring ones, continued for a 

 long time in eruption, and ten months afterwards were 

 again influenced by an earthquake at Concepcion. Some 

 men, cutting wood near the base of one of these volcanoes, 

 did not perceive the shock of the 20th, although the whole 

 surrounding province was then trembling ; here we have 

 an eruption relieving and taking the place of an earth- 

 quake, as would have happened at Concepcion, according 

 to the belief of the lower orders, if the volcano of Antuco 

 had not been closed by witchcraft. Two years and three- 

 quarters afterwards, Valdivia and Chiloe were again shaken, 

 more violently than on the 20th, and an island in the 

 Chonos Archipelago was permanently elevated more than 

 eight feet. It will give a bettor idea of the scale of these 

 phenomena, if (as in the case of the glaciers) we suppose 

 them to have taken place at corresponding distances in 



