332 CONCEPCION chap. 



that the trees beat against each other, and a volcano burst 

 forth under water close to the shore : these facts are remarkable 

 because this island, during the earthquake of 1 751, was then 

 also affected more violently than other places at an equal 

 distance from Concepcion, and this seems to show some 

 subterranean connexion between these two points. Chiloe, 

 about 340 miles southward of Concepcion, appears to have 

 been shaken more strongly than the intermediate district of 

 Valdivia, where the volcano of Villarica was noways affected, 

 whilst in the Cordillera in front of Chiloe two of the volcanoes 

 burst forth at the same instant in violent action. These two 

 volcanoes, and some neighbouring ones, continued for a long 

 time in eruption, and ten months afterwards were again 

 influenced by an earthquake at Concepcion. Some men, 

 cutting wood near the base of one of these volcanoes, did not 

 perceive the shock of the 20th, although the whole surrounding 

 Province was then trembling ; here we have an eruption 

 relieving and taking the place of an earthquake, as would have 

 happened at Concepcion, according to the belief of the lower 

 orders, if the volcano of Antuco had not been closed by 

 witchcraft. Two years and three-quarters afterwards Valdivia 

 and Chiloe were again shaken more violently than on the 20th, 

 and an island in the Chonos Archipelago was permanently 

 elevated more than eight feet. It will give a better idea of 

 the scale of these phenomena, if (as in the case of the glaciers) 

 we suppose them to have taken place at corresponding distances 

 in Europe : — then would the land from the North Sea to the 

 Mediterranean have been violently shaken, and at the same 

 instant of time a large tract of the eastern coast of England 

 would have been permanently elevated, together with some 

 outlying islands, — a train of volcanoes on the coast of Holland 

 would have burst forth in action, and an eruption taken place 

 at the bottom of the sea, near the northern extremity of Ireland 

 — and lastly, the ancient vents of Auvergne, Cantal, and Mont 

 d'Or would each have sent up to the sky a dark column of 

 smoke, and have long remained in fierce action. Two years 

 and three-quarters afterwards, France, from its centre to the 

 English Channel, would have been again desolated by an 

 earthquake, and an island permanently upraised in the 

 Mediterranean. 



