THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 



321 



years since at Chiloe, during a slight earthquake, and created 

 much causeless alarm. In the course of the evening there 

 were many weaker shocks, which seemed to produce in the 

 harbour the most complicated currents, and some of great 

 strength. 



March 4th. We entered the harbour of Concepcion. While 

 the ship was beating up to the anchorage, I landed on the 

 island of Quiriquina. The mayor-domo of the estate quickly 

 rode down to tell me the terrible news of the great earth- 

 quake 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 latter statement I 

 soon saw abundant proofs the whole coast being strewed 

 over with timber and furniture as if a thousand 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 Tal- 

 cahuano had been burst open, and great bags of cotton, yerba, 

 and other valuable merchandise were scattered on the shore. 

 During my walk round the island, I observed that numerous 

 fragments of rock, which, from the marine productions ad- 

 hering 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 two thick. 



The island itself as plainly showed the overwhelming 

 power of the earthquake, as the beach did that of the conse- 

 quent great wave. The ground in many parts was fissured 

 in north and south lines, perhaps caused by the yielding of 

 the parallel and steep sides of this narrow island. Some of 

 the fissures near the cliffs were a yard wide. Many enormous 

 masses had already fallen on the beach; and the inhabitants 

 thought that when the rains commenced far greater slips would 

 happen. The effect of the vibration on the hard primary slate, 

 which composes the foundation of the island, was still more 

 curious: the superficial parts of some narrow ridges were as 

 completely shivered as if they had been blasted by gun- 

 powder. This effect, which was rendered conspicuous by the 

 fresh fractures and displaced soil, must be confined to near 



VOL. XXIX K 



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