332 
CONCEPCION 
CHAP, 
that the trees beat against each other, and a volcano burst 
forth under water close to the shore : these facts are remarkable 
because this island, during the earthquake of 1751, was then 
also affected more violently than other places at an equal 
distance from Concepcion, and this seems to show some 
subterranean connexion between these two points. Chiloe, 
about 340 miles southward of Concepcion, appears to have 
been shaken more strongly than the intermediate district of 
Valdivia, where the volcano of Villarica was noways affected, 
whilst in the Cordillera in front of Chiloe two of the volcanoes 
burst forth at the same instant in violent action. These two 
volcanoes, and some neighbouring ones, continued for a long 
time in eruption, and ten months afterwards were again 
influenced by an earthquake at Concepcion. Some men, 
cutting wood near the base of one of these volcanoes, did not 
perceive the shock of the 20th, although the whole surrounding 
Province was then trembling; here we have an eruption 
relieving and taking the place of an earthquake, as would have 
happened at Concepcion, according to the belief of the lower 
orders, if the volcano of Antuco had not been closed by 
witchcraft. Two years and three-quarters afterwards Valdivia 
and Chiloe were again shaken more violently than on the 20th, 
and an island in the Chonos Archipelago was permanently 
elevated more than eight feet. It will give a better idea of 
the scale of these phenomena, if (as in the case of the glaciers) 
we suppose them to have taken place at corresponding distances 
in Europe :—then would the land from the North Sea to the 
Mediterranean have been violently shaken, and at the same 
instant of time a large tract of the eastern coast of England 
would have been permanently elevated, together with some 
outlying islands,—a train of volcanoes on the coast of Holland 
would have burst forth in action, and an eruption taken place 
at the bottom of the sea, near the northern extremity of Ireland 
—and lastly, the ancient vents of Auvergne, Cantal, and Mont 
d’Or would each have sent up to the sky a dark column of 
smoke, and have long remained in fierce action. Two years 
and three-quarters afterwards, France, from its centre to the 
English Channel, would have been again desolated by an 
earthquake, and an island permanently upraised in the 
Mediterranean. 
