MR. CALDCLEUGH ON THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN CHILE. 
23 
exceedingly active, and ejected a body of lava which covered a circumference of eight 
leagues three yards and a half deep, burying all the farm-houses, sugar-works, and 
cattle : the ashes continued falling for five days, and reached upwards of three hun- 
dred leagues from the centre of desolation and ruin. 
It was at half past eleven o’clock on the morning of the 20th that the earthquake 
commenced, with an atmosphere as serene and beautiful as the elements beneath 
were convulsed and threatening. The first oscillation, gentle, and attended with little 
noise, was but the precursor of the two succeeding undulations, Avhich were extremely 
violent ; the duration from the first to the last vibration was about two minutes and 
a half, and the direction appeared to be from south-west to north-east. The sensation 
occasioned by the undulatory movements, seemed to me to be similar to that which 
would be produced by standing on a plank the ends of which rose and fell two feet 
from the ground. The small streams of water which run down the streets were 
checked and throwm over the edges of their channels. In Talca, eighty leagues 
to the south, the effects were still more violent : the oscillation commenced without 
being accompanied by that rumbling noise which usually is the forerunner of these 
awful phenomena. In Concepcion, where the great violence of the earthquake was 
felt, it was the second undulation which caused the havoc in the buildings ; and 
previous to that and the many succeeding shocks, a violent report was heard, pro- 
ceeding from the southward, as from a volcano in that direction. All the houses in 
the port of Talcahuano, which were situate on the low lands beneath the hills, were 
laid prostrate ; and about half an hour after the vibration, when the inhabitants 
were returning to their houses from the heights and open spaces, it was remarked 
that the sea had retired so much beyond its usual limits that all the rocks and 
shoals in the bay were visible. It flowed again, and again retired, leaving the 
ships dry which were at anchor in the harbour. Then an enormous wave was seen 
slowly approaching the devoted town, from the direction of the Boca Chica. For 
ten minutes it rolled majestically on, giving time to the inhabitants to run to the 
heights, whence they saw the whole place swallowed up by this immense breaker. 
In this moment of terror, men saw the roller with little accordance as to size ; 
some compared it to the height of the loftiest ship, others to the height of the 
island of Quiriquina. It carried all before it, and rose by accurate measurement 
twenty-eight feet above high-water mark. A small schooner of eighty tons, nearly 
ready for launching, was lifted over the remains of the walls, and found lying 
among the ruins three hundred yards from her stocks. The reflux of this roller car- 
ried everything to the ocean. Another and a larger wave succeeded ; but taking a 
more easterly direction, the ruins of Talcahuano escaped, but the Isla del Rey was 
ravaged by it. A fourth and last roller, of small dimensions, advanced, but nothing 
was left for further devastation. While these great waves were rushing on, two erup- 
tions of dense smoke were observed to issue from the sea. One, in shape like a lofty 
tower, occurred in the offing ; the other took place in the small bay of San Vicente, 
