214 



and the Cruz de Reyes. He also never found the least trace of the 

 above productions, except in situations covered by the tide. 



After the earthquake, Mr. Cuming resided in a house in the Arse- 

 nal, where the spring tides came up to the same mark as they did pre- 

 viously to that event. He refers especially to the tides of 1822 and 

 1S23.' 



Another circumstance which convinced Mr. Cuming that no change 

 of level had taken place was the existence of a small detached rock 

 opposite the Estanco, half-way between the Custom house and the 

 Market place, and about fifty yards from the walls at half tide. From 

 this rock he had often taken Concholepas Peruviana previously to the 

 earthquake, and subsequently it retained the same position. 



The vessels occupied the same anchorage as they did before Novem- 

 ber 1 822 ; and nautical men affirmed that there was not the least dif- 

 erence in the depth of the water in any part of the Bay. 



The opinion that a change had taken place in the relative level of 

 land and sea, Mr. Cuming conceives originated in the accumulation 

 of detritus at points where the tide flowed anterior to the earthquake, 

 and on which houses, and even small streets have been since erected. 

 Though these accumulations appear to have been going on between 

 50 and 80 years, yet they were small previously to the violent rains 

 in June 1827, which brought down into the bay the loose granitic 

 soil of the hills and the ravines. This detritus has since been thrown 

 up by the tides, and formed into a firm open space exceeding 250 feet 

 in breadth, on which the buildings have been erected. 



The quantity of matter thus carried into the Bay has not affected 

 the anchorage, and Mr. Cuming, when dredging within two hundred 

 yards of low-water mark, never found a grain of decomposed granite, 

 or any kind of recent soil, but fine sandy mud, well stocked with se- 

 veral species of shells of mature growth. 



Both to the northward and southward of Valparaiso, where the 

 roast is open, namely, at Lagunilla, Vina del Mar, Con-Con, and 

 Quintero, the sea has thrown up high banks of sand, many feet above 

 the level of the land behind them, and reaching inland from 1000 to 

 2000 feet, and at Quintero to a much greater extent. At this place 

 the sand contains beds of shells " in a semi-fossil state." Mr. Cuming 

 visited these localities previously to the earthquake, and often subse- 

 quently, but never saw a shell beyond the range of high water, except 

 those in the state above mentioned, and the owners declared that no 

 change had taken place. 



Mr. Cuming also states that about 70 years since, he believes at 

 the same time that Conception was visited by an earthquake, Valpa- 

 raiso was also visited. The sea retired to a very great distance, and 

 the reflux was so violent that it destroyed all the houses, carrying the 

 boats and canoes to the church of San Francisco, which is about a 

 quarter of a mile on a gradual ascent from where the tide usually flows. 



A paper on the effects of the Earthquake-waves on the Coasts of 

 the Pacific, by Woodbine Parish, Esq., Sec. G.S., was afterwards read. 



