EARTHQUAKES. 187 



CHILE. 



old man, who had been in the habit, during trifling shocks, 

 of crawling to a certain door-way, was this time crushed to 

 pieces. 



Shortly after the shock a great wave was seen from the 

 distance of three or four miles, approaching in the middle of 

 the bay with a smooth outline; but along the shore it tore 

 up cottages and trees as it swept onward with irresistible 

 force. At the head of the bay it broke in a fearful line of 

 white breakers, which rushed up to a height of twenty-three 

 vertical feet above the highest spring-tides. Their force must 

 have been prodigious, for at the fort a cannon with its car- 

 riage, estimated at four tons in weight, was moved fifteen 

 feet inward. A schooner was left in the midst of the ruins, 

 two hundred yards from the beach. The first wave was fol- 

 lowed by two others, which in their retreat carried away a 

 vast wreck of floating objects. In one part of the bay a ship 

 was pitched high and dry on shore, was carried off, again 

 driven on shore, and again carried off. In another part, two 

 large vessels anchored near together were whirled about, and 

 their cables were thrice wound round each other: though 

 anchored at a depth of thirty -six feet, they were for some 

 minutes aground. The great wave must have travelled 

 slowly, for the inhabitants of Talcahuano had time to run 

 up the hills behind the town ; and some sailors pulled out 

 seaward, trusting successfully to their boat riding securely 

 over the swell if they could reach it before it broke. One 

 old woman, with a little boy four or five years old, ran into 

 a boat, but there was nobody to row it out the boat was 

 consequently dashed against an anchor and cut in twain ; the 



