410 



MARINE EXPLOSIONS — FISH. 



Feb. 



which swept over Talcahuano. Having more room to expend 

 its strength in the wider and deeper part of the bay may per- 

 haps have been the reason why the sea swelled rapidly, with- 

 out breaking, near Lirquen, in the south-east part of the bay ; 

 and why it broke over Tome* with violence, though not so 

 furiously as over Talcahuano. The great waves, coming 

 from the sea, appear to have been divided, at the entrance of 

 Concepcion Bay, by the island of Quiriquina, and turned 

 aside both ways, one part taking its course along the Tumbes, 

 or western shore, towards Talcahuano ; the other across the 

 eastern opening, towards Tome. While the bay of Concep- 

 cion was agitated by the great waves, it was noticed by Cap- 

 tain Walford (from his house at Lirquen), that the Colocolo 

 was swept to and fro remarkably. She was under sail near the 

 eastern entrance of the bay. Two explosions, or eruptions, were 

 witnessed while the waves were coming in. One in the offing, 

 beyond the island of Quiriquina, was seen by Mr. Henry 

 Burdon and his family, who were then embarked in a large 

 boat, near Tome ; it appeared to be a dark column of smoke, 

 in shape like a tower. Another rose in the middle of the bay 

 of San Vicente, like the blowing of an immense imaginary 

 whale : its disappearance was followed by a whirlpool which 

 lasted some minutes : it was hollow, and tended to a point in 

 the middle, as if the sea was pouring into a cavity of the earth. 

 At the time of the ruin, and until after the great waves, the 

 water in the bay appeared to be every where boiling ; bubbles 

 of air, or gas, were rapidly escaping ; the water also becamp 

 black, and exhaled a most disagreeable sulphureous smell. 

 Dead fish were afterwards thrown ashore in quantities ; they 

 seemed to have been poisoned, or suffocated; and for days 

 together the shores of the bay were covered with fine cor- 

 vinos, and numerous small fish. Black stinking water burst 

 up from the earth, in several places; and in Mr. Evans's 

 yard, at Talcahuano, the ground swelled like a large bubble, 



* Tome is near the eastern entrance of the bay, where the wave would 

 meet with more interruption than near Lirquen, though considerably less 

 than in the western passage. 



