XVI 
STEP-FORMED TERRACES 
3t>7 
ingly he opened the door ; and no sooner had he done this, 
than he cried out, “ Here it comes again ! 5 ’ and the famous shock 
commenced. The whole party escaped. The danger in an 
earthquake is not from the time lost in opening a door, but from 
the chance of its becoming jammed by the movement of the 
walls. 
It is impossible to be much surprised at the fear which 
natives and old residents, though some of them known to be 
men of great command of mind, so generally experience during 
earthquakes. I think, however, this excess of panic may be partly 
attributed to a want of habit in governing their fear, as it is not 
a feeling they are ashamed of. Indeed, the natives do not like 
to see a person indifferent. I heard of two Englishmen who, 
sleeping in the open air during a smart shock, knowing that 
there was no danger, did not rise. The natives cried out 
indignantly, “ Look at those heretics, they will not even get 
out of their beds ! ” 
I spent some days in examining the step-formed terraces 
of shingle, first noticed by Captain B. Hall, and believed by 
Mr. Lyell to have been formed by the sea during the gradual 
rising of the land. This certainly is the true explanation, for I 
found numerous shells of existing species on these terraces. 
Five narrow, gently-sloping, fringe-like terraces rise one behind 
the other, and where best developed are formed of shingle : 
they front the bay, and sweep up both sides of the valley. At 
Guasco, north of Coquimbo, the phenomenon is displayed on a 
much grander scale, so as to strike with surprise even some of 
the inhabitants. The terraces are there much broader, and 
may be called plains ; in some parts there are six of them, but 
generally only five; they run up the valley for thirty-seven 
miles from the coast. These step-formed terraces or fringes 
closely resemble those in the valley of S. Cruz, and except in 
being on a smaller scale, those great ones along the whole coast¬ 
line of Patagonia. They have undoubtedly been formed by 
the denuding power of the sea, during long periods of rest in 
the gradual elevation of the continent. 
Shells of many existing species not only lie on the surface 
of the terraces at Coquimbo (to a height of 250 feet), but are 
embedded in a friable calcareous rock, which in some places is 
