322 CHARLES DARWIN 



the surface, for otherwise there would not exist a block of 

 solid rock throughout Chile; nor is this improbable, as it is 

 known that the surface of a vibrating body is affected differ- 

 ently 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 know 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 prov- 

 ince must amount to many thousands) must have perished, 

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

 tice 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 be distinguished. From this circum- 

 stance 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 Quiri- 

 quina told me, that the first notice he received of it, was 

 finding both the horse he rode and himself, rolling together 

 on the ground. Rising 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 



