184 WHAT MR. DARWIN SAW. 



CHILE. 



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-\vater mark, and then as quickly returned to its prop- 

 er level ; this was also evident by the line of wet sand. 



On the fourth of March we entered the harbor of Con- 

 cepcion. While the ship was beating up to the anchorage 

 I landed on the island of Quinquina. 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 lat- 

 ter statement I soon saw abundant proofs, the whole coast 

 being strewed over with timber and furniture, as if a thou- 

 sand 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 

 storehouses at Talcahuano had been burst open, and great 

 bags of cotton, yerba, and other valuable merchandise, were 

 scattered on the shore. During my walk around the island 

 I observed that numerous fragments of rock, which, from the 

 marine productions adhering to them, must recently have 

 been lying in deep water, had been cast up high on the 

 beach ; one of these was six feet long, three broad and thick. 

 I believe this convulsion has done more to lessen the size 

 of the island of Quinquina 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 afterward 

 rode to Concepcion. Both towns presented the most awful 



