414 Mrs. Graham on Earthquakes in Chili. 



at this season. During my stay in Chili, from this time until the 18th of 

 January 1823_, continual earthquakes, more or less severe, were felt every 

 day. Those on the lOlh and 25th of December were the most violent after 

 that of the 19th of November. I have learnt that after my departure the earth- 

 quakes continued ; that they were very violent last July, and had not ceased 

 altogether so late as last September. 



The sensation experienced during the more violent shocks was that of the 

 earth being suddenly heaved up in a direction from north to south, and then 

 falling down again ; a transverse motion also being now and then felt. There 

 was on the 19th of November a general tremor felt, and a sound heard like 

 that of vapour bursting out, similar to the tremor and sound which I remem- 

 ber to have observed at each jet of fire, while standing on the cone of Vesu- 

 vius during the eruption of 1818. The tremor between the shocks was shown 

 to be real by the agitation of water in a glass ; and during the shocks water 

 or mercury placed in a glass was thrown over the edge in every direction. In 

 the house where I resided, the furniture was all displaced with some degree 

 of regularity, so as to range, not parallel to the walls which fronted to the 

 north and south, but at a given angle diagonally. The sensation experienced 

 on board of the ships that lay in the harbour of Valparaiso, was as if they were 

 moving very rapidly through the water, and occasionally touching the ground. 

 On the first shock on the night of the 19th of November, the sea in Valparaiso 

 harbour rose to a great height, and then receded so as to leave the small ves- 

 sels that were before afloat, dry on the beach : it then returned again, but, as 

 compared with the level of the land, not to its original level. All this is stated 

 to have happened in the course of a quarter of an hour. 



On the morning of the 20th, all the rivers and lakes connected with them, 

 in consequence of the dislodgement of snow from the mountains, were much 

 swollen. In all the small valleys the earth of the gardens was rent, and quan- 

 tities of water and sand were forced up through the cracks to the surface. In 

 the alluvial valley of Vina a la Mar, the whole plain was covered with cones 

 of earth about 4 feet high, occasioned by the water and sand which had been 

 forced up through funnel-shaped hollows beneath them ; the whole surface 

 being thus reduced to the consistence of a quicksand. At the roots of all the 

 trees, between the surrounding earth and the stem, large hollows were seen, 

 into which the hand could be introduced, occasioned by the violence with 

 wliich the trunks had been lashed to and fro. The bed of the lake of 

 Quintero was full of large cracks, and the alluvial soil on its shore so divided 

 as to look like a sponge : the level of the lake, which communicates with the 

 sea, had apparently sank very much. The promontory of Quintero consists 



