376 



that the land had been raised about eight feet. However, on re- 

 turning to Conception, doubts were raised, and to settle the matter 

 l)eyond dispute, or the possibility of mistake, the owner of the 

 island, Mr. Salvador Palma, accompanied us. An intelligent Ha- 

 noverian, who had lived two years there and knew its shores tho- 

 roughly, was also a passenger in the Beagle. His occupation upon 

 the island was sealing. When we landed, the Hanoverian, whose 

 name was Antonio Vogelborg, showed me a spot from which he used 

 formerly to gather Chores by diving for them at low water. At 

 dead low water, standing upon that bed of choros, and holding his 

 hands up above his head, he could not reach the surface of the 

 water. His height is six feet ; on that spot when I was there the 

 choros were barely covered at high spring tide. 



" Riding round the island afterwards with Mr. Pglma and Vogel- 

 borg, many measures were taken in places where no mistake could 

 be made. On large steep-sided rocksj where vertical measures 

 could be correctly taken, beds of dead mussels were found ten feet 

 above the present high-water mark. A few inches only above 

 what was taken as spring-tide high-water mark were putrid shell» 

 fish and sea- weed, which evidently had not been wetted since the 

 upheaval of the land. One foot lower than the highest bed of mus- 

 sels, a few limpets and chitons were adhering to the rock where 

 they had grown. Two feet lower than the same, mussels, chitons, 

 and limpets were abundant. 



"An extensive rocky flat lies around the northern parts of Santa 

 Maria. Before the earthquake this flat was covered by the sea, 

 some projecting rocks only showing themselves. Now the whole 

 flat is exposed. Square acres (or many quadras) of this rocky flat 

 were covered with dead shell-fish, and the stench arising from them 

 was abominable. By this elevation of the land the southern port 

 of Santa Maria has been almost destroyed ; there remains but little 

 shelter, and very bad landing. The soundings have diminished a 

 fathom and a half every where around the island." 



The author then goes on to inform us that at Tubul, to the south- 

 east of Santa Maria, the land has been raised six feet. At Mocha 

 two feet. No elevation has been ascertained at Valdivia, north- 

 ward of Conception ; at Maule, according to the assertion of the 

 governor, the chief pilot, and other residents, the land instead of 

 being elevated had sunk two feet, for they said there were two feet 

 more water on the bar after the shock, and the banks of the river 

 were lowered. Capt. FitzRoy, however, suggests that a rush of wa- 

 ter might have shifted the loose sands of the bar ; so that he doubts 

 the subsidence at Maule, and only feels certain that the land had 

 not risen there. 



It is scarcely necessary for me to advert to the striking analogy 

 of the phsenomena observed by Capt. FitzRoy and those which were 

 formerly described by Mrs. Maria Graham (now Calcott), and pub- 

 lished in our Transactions, respecting the Chilian earthquake of 1822. 

 The coast of Valparaiso, Quintero, and other places was then stated 

 to have undergone unequal elevations, the greatest amounting only 



