1835.] GREAT EARTHQUAKE. 



tracks, the shortest way : the walk, nevertheless, took no less than 

 three hours ! This man is employed iu 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 %Qth. This day has been memorable in the annals of 

 Valdivia, for the most severe earthquake experienced 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 nay companion 

 and myself to come from due east, whilst others thought they pro- 

 ceeded 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 movement 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 associations ; the 

 earth, the very emblem of solidity, has moved 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 

 Hoy 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 effects. Within the forest it 

 was a deeply interesting, but by no means an awe-exciting pheno- 

 menon. 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 



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