XIV EFFECTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE 325 



Quiriquina, than the ordinary wear and tear of the sea and 

 weather during the course of a whole century. 



The next day I landed at Talcahuano, and afterwards rode 

 to Concepcion. Both towns presented the most awful yet 

 interesting spectacle I ever beheld. To a person who had 

 formerly known them, it possibly might have been still more 

 impressive ; for the ruins were so mingled together, and the 

 whole scene possessed so little the air of a habitable place, 

 that it was scarcely possible to imagine its former condition. 

 The earthquake commenced at half-past eleven o'clock in the 

 forenoon. If it had happened in the middle of the night, the 

 greater number of the inhabitants (which in this one province 

 amount to many thousands) must have perished, instead of less 

 than a hundred : as it was, the invariable practice of running 

 out of doors at the first trembling of the ground alone saved 

 them. In Concepcion each house, or row of houses, stood by 

 itself, a heap or line of ruins ; but in Talcahuano, owing to 

 the great wave, little more than one layer of bricks, tiles, and 

 timber, with here and there part of a wall left standing, could 

 be distinguished. From this circumstance Concepcion, although 

 not so completely desolated, was a more terrible, and, if I may 

 so call it, picturesque sight. The first shock was very sudden. 

 The mayor-domo at Quiriquina told me that the first notice 

 he received of it, was finding both the horse he rode and himself 

 rolling together on the ground. Rising up, he was again 

 thrown down. He also told me that some cows which were 

 standing on the steep side of the island were rolled into the 

 sea. The great wave caused the destruction of many cattle ; 

 on one low island, near the head of the bay, seventy animals 

 were washed off and drowned. It is generally thought that 

 this has been the worst earthquake ever recorded in Chile ; 

 but as the very severe ones occur only after long intervals, 

 this cannot easily be known ; nor indeed would a much worse 

 shock have made any great difference, for the ruin was now 

 complete. Innumerable small tremblings followed the great 

 earthquake, and within the first twelve days no less than three 

 hundred were counted. 



After viewing Concepcion, I cannot understand how the 

 greater number of inhabitants escaped unhurt. The houses in 

 many parts fell outwards ; thus forming in the middle of the 



