420 VERTICAL MOVEMENT OF LAND. April 



' Penquistos,'''^ as cordially as if their nerves and minds had 

 endured no strain. 



Although it was indisputably proved to the satisfaction of 

 every person in the neighbourhood, that elevations of land had 

 occurred to the extent mentioned in the previous chapter, I 

 strongly suspect that a sinking down has taken place since 

 that period, to a very considerable amount, if not quite enough 

 to counterbalance former elevation. This idea is suggested 

 by the fact that when I was last at Talcahuano, in July 1835, 

 only four months after the great convulsion, the shores of 

 Concepcion Bay had regained their former position with 

 respect to the level of the sea :-|- — by what the people of Tubul 

 told me, when I rode by, of the sea having returned to its 

 centre,| (meaning that it had regained its usual height), — 

 and by what the inhabitants of Santa Maria said, when they 

 told me that for three or four weeks immediately following 

 the earthquake, their little port was much shallower than it 

 was when I went there seven weeks afterwards. 



Wliether this conjecture be well founded a short time may 

 show : if it should be, an explanation might thus arise of the 

 differences of opinion respecting the permanent elevation of 

 land near Valparaiso, where some say it has been raised seve- 

 ral feet during the last twenty years, while others deny 

 that it has been raised at all. It may have been elevated, or 

 upheaved as geologists say, for a time, but since then it may 

 have settled or sunk down again gradually to its old position. 

 In a place like Valparaiso Bay, where dust is so much blown 

 from the land to the water''s edge, and even out to sea ; and 

 where many streams bring detritus from ravines, no decisive 

 judgment can be formed as to the rise of land, because of the 

 beach increasing gradually, and the water diminishing in depth. 



* Natives of Concepcion: so called because they formerly lived at 

 Pence : before that city was overwhelmed in 1730. 



t Close to the landing place at Concepcion is a rock that was usually 

 covered at high-water, previous to the earthquake (of 1835), but which 

 was two feet above the highest tides of the next few weeks. In July, 

 1835, that rock was covered at ordinary high-water, as in 1834. 



X ' Esta ahora el mar a su centre' 



