314 JOURNAL. 



a good deal : their house is unroofed ; that is, on one side every 

 tile is off, and a considerable part of those on the other side. The 

 walls of the mill are quite destroyed ; but the strong corner-posts 

 have supported the roof, and the machinery is but little damaged. 

 The sides of the mill-lead have fallen in ; but the mill has gained by 

 such an alteration in the bed of the river as has given the water 

 several inches more fall than it had. — The night of the 19th was ter- 

 rific here. The two children of Mr. Miers were in bed in rooms 

 which had no communication with each other, and one of them none 

 but from the outer veranda with any part of the house. Mr. Miers 

 hurried his wife from the house, she shrieking for her children : he 

 ran back for the youngest, — the showers of tiles prevented his ap- 

 proaching the place where the eldest was : there was a moment's 

 pause, — he found the child asleep, and brought him out safe. The 

 family spent that night without sleep, walking in front of their ruined 

 home. In the morning they pitched a tent ; and by the time I ar- 

 rived there they had a ramada, or hut of branches. During the 

 great shock the earth had rent literally under their feet, and they 

 describe the sound along the valley as most fearful. The church of 

 Concon is overthrown, and the estate « house nearly destroyed. 



At Vina a la Mar I found the whole family established in a 

 ramada at their outer gate-way ; there nothing was standing but part 

 of the front wall of the dwelling-house : the ruin had been complete ; 

 not a shelter remained for any living thing. The whole of the little 

 plain is covered with small cones from one to four feet high, thrown 

 up from below on the night of the 19th, and from which sand 

 and water had been thrown out. I attempted to ride up towards 

 one of them ; but on approaching it, the horse began to sink as in a 

 quick-sand ; therefore I desisted, not choosing to pay too dearly for 

 the gratification of my curiosity. 



The road between Vina a la Mar and the port is very much in- 

 jured by the falling of the rocks from above : in one place indeed it 

 is rendered extremely unsafe ; but the horses of Chile are so sure- 



