374 



CONCEPCION. 



March, 1835. 



under his protection, hved for the first week in a garden 

 beneath some apple-trees. At first they were as merry as if 

 it had been a picnic; bat soon afterwards heavy rain caused 

 much discomfort, for they were absolutely without shelter. 



In Captain FitzRoy's paper it is said that two explosions,, 

 one like a column of smoke, and another like the blowing of 

 a great whale, were seen in the bay of Concepcion. The 

 water also appeared every where to be boiling ; and it be- 

 came black, and exhaled a most disagreeable sulphureous 

 smell.^^ I am informed by Mr. Alison, that during the earth- 

 quake of 1822 these last-mentioned circumstances occurred 

 in the bay of Valparaiso. The two great explosions in the 

 first case must no doubt be connected with deep-seated 

 changes ; but the bubbling water, its black colour and fetid 

 smell, the usual concomitants of a severe earthquake, may, I 

 think, be attributed to the disturbance of mud containing 

 organic matter in decay. In the bay of Callao, during a 

 calm day, I noticed, that as the ship dragged her cable 

 over the bottom, its course was marked by a line of bubbles. 



The lower orders in Talcuhano thought that the earth- 

 quake was caused by some old Indian women, who two 

 years ago having been offended, stopped the volcano of 

 Antuco. This silly belief is curious, because it shows that 

 experience has taught them to observe the constant relation 

 between the suppressed activity of volcanoes, and the trem- 

 bling of the ground. It was necessary to apply the witch- 

 craft to the point where their knowledge stopped ; and this 

 was the closing of the volcanic vent. This saying is the 

 more odd in this particular instance, because the result of 

 Captain FitzRoy's investigation was to discountenance the 

 belief that Antuco (whatever might have been the case with 

 the volcanoes further northward) was any way afffected. 



The town of Concepcion was built in the usual Spanish 

 fashion, with all the streets running at right angles to each 

 other. One set ranged S.W. by W. and N.E. by E., and 

 the other N.W. by N. and S.E. by S. The walls in the 

 former direction certainly stood better than those in the 



