370 



CONCEPCION. 



March, 1835. 



22d. — We sailed from Valdivia, and on the 4th of March, 

 entered the harbour of Concepcion. While the ship was 

 beating up to the anchorage, which is distant several miles, I 

 was landed on the island of Quiriquina. The mayor-domo of 

 the estate quickly rode down to tell us the terrible news of 

 the great earthquake of the 20th ; — " that not a house in 

 Concepcion, or Talcuhano, (the port) was standing; that 

 seventy villages were destroyed ; and that a great wave had 

 almost washed away the ruins of Talcuhano/^ Of this latter 

 fact I soon saw abundant proof; the whole coast being 

 strewed over with timber and furniture, as if a thousand 

 great ships had been wrecked. Besides chairs, tables, book- 

 shelves, &c., in great numbers, there were several roofs of 

 cottages, which had been drifted in an almost entire state. 

 The storehouses at Talcuhano had burst open, and great 

 bags of cotton, yerba, and other valuable merchandise, were 

 scattered about on the shore. During my walk round the 

 island, T observed that numerous fragments of rock, which, 

 from the marine productions adhering to them, must 

 recently have been lying in deep water, had been cast up 

 high on the beach. One of these was a slab six feet by 

 three, and about two feet thick. 



The island itself as plainly showed the overwhelming power 

 of the earthquake, as the beach did that of the consequent 

 great wave. The ground was fissured in many parts, in north 

 and south lines ; which direction perhaps was caused by the 

 yielding of the parallel and steep sides of the narrow island. 

 Some of the fissures near the cliffs were a yard wide : many 

 enormous masses had already fallen on the beach ; and the 

 inhabitants thought, that when the rains commenced, even 

 much greater slips would happen. The eifect of the vibration 

 on the hard primary slate, which composes the foundation of 

 the island, was still more curious : the superficial parts of 

 some narrow ridges were as completely shivered, as if they 

 had been blasted by gunpowder. This effect, which was 

 rendered very evident by the fresh fractures and displaced 

 soil, must, during earthquakes, be confined to near the sur- 



