802 CONCEPCION. [cuar. xIv. 
by a person skating over thin ice, which bends under the weight 
of his body. 
A bad earthquake at once destroys our oldest associations: 
the earth, the very emblem of solidity, has moved beneath our 
feet like a thin crust over a fluid ;—one second of time has created 
in the mind a strange idea of insecurity, which hours of reflec- 
tion would not have produced. In the forest, as a breeze 
moved the trees, I felt only the earth tremble, but saw no other 
effect. Captain Fitz Roy and some officers were at the town 
during the shock, and there the scene was more striking; for 
although the houses, from being built of wood, did not fall, they 
were violently shaken, and the boards creaked and rattled toge- 
ther. The people rushed out of doors in the greatest alarm. It 
is these accompaniments that create that perfect horror of earth- 
quakes, experienced by all who have thus seen, as well as felt, 
their effects. Within the forest it was a deeply interesting, but 
by no means an awe-exciting phenomenon. The tides were very 
curiously affected. The great shock took place at the time of 
low water; and an old woman who was on the beach told me, 
that the water flowed very quickly, but not in great waves, to 
high-water mark, and then as quickly returned to its proper 
evel; this was also evident by the line of wet sand. This same 
kind of quick but quiet movement in the tide, happened a few 
years since at Chiloe, during a slight earthquake, and created 
much causeless alarm. In the course of the evening there were 
many weaker shocks, which seemed to produce in the harbour 
the most complicated currents, and some of great strength. 
March 4th.—We entered the harbour of Concepcion. While 
the ship was beating up to the anchorage, I landed on the island 
of Quiriquina. The mayor-domo of the estate quickly rode 
down to tell me the terrible news of the great earthquake of the 
20th :— That not a house in Concepcion or Talcahuano (the 
port) was standing; that seventy villages were destroyed; and 
that a great wave had almost washed away the ruins of Talca- 
huano.” Of this latter statement I soon saw abundant proofs— 
the whole coast being strewed over with timber and furniture as 
if a thousand ships had been wrecked. [Besides chairs, tables, 
book-shelves, &c., in great numbers, there were several roofs of 
