24 
MR. CALDCLEUGH ON THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN CHILE. 
and after it. had disappeared, a whirlpool succeeded, hollow, in shape like an inverted 
cone, as if the sea were pouring- into a cavity of the earth. In every direction in this 
bay, as well as in Talcahuano, vast bubbles broke, as if an immense evolution of gas 
were taking place, turning the colour of the water black, and exhaling a fetid sulphu- 
reous odour. . ... Vi 
At San Tom6, on the other side of the bay, the roller did immense damage ; and 
on the island of Quinquina the cattle dashed off the cliffs from panic. In this island 
the waves injured houses forty feet above the present level of high water, and during 
the three following days the sea ebbed and flowed irregularly. 
In the bay of Concepcion, the strata of clay slate have been visibly elevated, from 
about three to four feet. This alteration of the relative position of sea and land is 
clearly distinguishable, by a rock off the landing-place, which previous to the shock 
was nearly level with high Avater, being subsequently found to be raised three feet 
higher ; and the buoy on the Belen Bank has now four feet less water than formerly. 
A vessel lying at anchor had one fathom less water alongside her than before the 
shock ; but it is very likely that she changed her position. At the port of San Vicente, 
a little to the south of Talcahuano, the land has also risen about a foot and a half; 
and along the shore of the latter bay, even at high water, beds of dead muscles were 
left as proofs of the upheaval of the strata. 
To the southward of the entrance of the bay of Concepcion there is a small island 
called Santa Maria, about seven miles long and two wide. Capt. FitzRoy examined 
with great care the line of beach in the southern cove, as well as the northern 
part of the island ; and from the visible evidence of beds of dead shell-fish, from 
soundings, and from unbiassed oral testimony, it appears placed beyond the shadow 
of doubt, that on the latter side the elevation of the land has not been less than ten 
feet, in the centre of the island about nine, and in the southern cove about eight feet. 
This upheaving has almost destroyed the southern port of the island, for it now 
affords but little shelter to vessels, and the landing is bad. Everywhere around the 
island the soundings have been diminished a fathom and a half, and the cliffs, of the 
height of 150 or 200 feet, are split and rent in all directions, and huge masses pre- 
cipitated beloAV. Both Capt. FitzRoy and Capt. Simpson, of the Chilian Navy, are of 
opinion that the uprising of the strata, both in this island and in Concepcion, at the 
time of the earthquake, Avas considerably greater, and that the many subsequent 
minor oscillations may have caused a subsidence to the level before recorded. At 
Subul, a little to the south-east of Santa Maria, the elevation of the strata appears 
to haA r e been about six feet. 
At Nuevo Bilbao, the port of the river Maule, seventy leagues north of Concep- 
cion, about an hour and a half after the shock, the sea flowed above the usual water 
mark, and continued for half an hour in that state before a reflux took place. Fifty 
minutes afterwards the sea, greatly agitated, rolled on the coast and up the river with 
extraordinary violence, and reached a height of twelve feet above the water mark. 
