Feb. 1835. 



GREAT EARTHQUAKE. 



369 



much longer. The rocking of the ground was most sensible. 

 The undulations appeared to my companion and myself to 

 come from due east ; whilst others thought they proceeded 

 from south-west ; which shows how difficult it is in all cases 

 to perceive the direction of these vibrations. There was no 

 difficulty in standing upright^ but the motion made me almost 

 giddy. It was something like the movement of a vessel in a 

 little cross ripple^ or still more like that felt by a person skating 

 over thin ice^ which bends under the weight of his body. 



A bad earthquake at once destroys the oldest asso- 

 ciations : the worldj the very emblem of all that is solid^ 

 has moved beneath our feet like a crust over a fluid ; — one 

 second of time has conveyed to the mind a strange idea of 

 insecurity, which hours of reflection would never have cre- 

 ated. In the forest, as a breeze moved the trees, I only 

 felt the earth tremble, but saw no consequences from it. 

 Captain FitzRoy and the officers were at the town during 

 the shock, and there the scene was more awful ; for although 

 the houses, from being built of wood, did not fall, yet they 

 were so violently shaken that the boards creaked and rattled. 

 The people rushed out of doors in the greatest alarm. I feel 

 little doubt that it is these accompaniments which cause that 

 horror of earthquakes, experienced by all those who have 

 thus seen as well as felt their eflfects. 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 big waves, 

 to high-water mark, and then as quickly returned to its pro- 

 per level ; 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 earth- 

 quake, and created much causeless alarm. In the course of 

 the evening there were other weaker shocks, all of which 

 seemed to produce in the harbour the most complicated cur- 

 rents, and some of great strength. 



VOL. 2 B 



