1835.] EFFECTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 291 



out Chile ; nor is this improbable, as it is known that the surface 

 of a vibrating body is affected differently from the central part. It 

 is, perhaps, owing to this same reason, that earthquakes do not cause 

 quite such terrific havoc within deep mines as would be expected. 

 I believe this convulsion has been more effectual in lessening the 

 size of the island of Quiriquina, than the ordinary wear-and-tear of 

 the sea and weather during the course of a whole century. 



The next day I landed at Talcahuano, and afterwards rode to 

 Concepcion. Both towns presented the most awful yet interesting 

 spectacle I ever beheld. To a person who had formerly known 

 them, it possibly might have been still more impressive ; for the 

 ruins were so mingled together, and the whole scene possessed so 

 little the air of a habitable place, that it was scarcely possible to 

 imagine its former condition. The earthquake commenced at half- 

 past eleven o'clock in the forenoon. If it had happened in the 

 middle of the night, the greater number of the inhabitants (which 

 in this one province amount to many thousands) must have 

 perished, instead of less than a hundred : as it was, the invariable 

 practice of running out of doors at the first trembling of the 

 ground, alone saved them. In Concepcion each house, or row of 

 houses, stood by itself, a heap or line of ruins ; but in Talcahuano, 

 owing to the great wave, little more than one layer of bricks, tiles, 

 and timber, with here and there part of a wall left standing, could 

 bo distinguished. From this circumstance Concepcion, although 

 not so completely desolated, was a more terrible, and, if I may so 

 call it, picturesque sight. The first shock was very sudden. The 

 mayor-domo at Quiriquina told me, that the first notice he received 

 of it, was finding both the horse he rode and himself, rolling together 

 on the ground. Eising up, he was again thrown down. He also 

 told me that some cows which were standing on the steep side of 

 the island were rolled into the sea. The great wave caused the 

 destruction of many cattle ; on one low island, near the head of the 

 bay, seventy animals were washed off and drowned. It is generally 

 thought that this has been the worst earthquake ever recorded in 

 Chile ; but as the very severe ones occur only after long intervals, 

 this cannot easily be known ; nor indeed would a much worse shock 

 have made any great difference, for the ruin was now complete. 

 Innumerable small tremblings followed the great earthquake, and 

 within the first twelve days no less than three hundred were 

 counted. 



