Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

1835. SITUATION — ANECDOTES. 405 hering to the remains of the walls were left the lower parts of some buttresses — the upper parts of others — while in one place a buttress stood on its own foundation, separated entirely from the wall. The city of Concepcion stands upon a plain, very little higher than the level of the river Bio Bio. The soil is loose and allu- vial. To the eastward and northward lie rocky irregular hills from the foot of which the loose earth was every where parted by the great convulsion, large cracks being left, from an inch to more than a foot in width. It seemed as if the low land had been separated from the hills, having been more disturbed by the shock. Women washing in the river near Concepcion were startled by the sudden rise of the water — from their ankles to their knees — and at the same moment felt the beginning of the con- vulsion. It was said that the dogs avoided the ruin, by run- ning away before it occurred. This, though known with certainty to have been the case at Talcahuano, wants con- firmation with respect to Concepcion. Of nine men who were repairing the inside of a church, seven were killed, and two severely hurt. One of these poor fellows was half-buried in the ruins, during five days, with a dead body lying across him, through which it was necessary to cut, for his release. A mother, escaping with her children, saw one fall into a hole; a wall close to her was tottering ; she pushed a piece of wood across the hole, and ran on ; the wall fell, covering the hole with masses of brick-work ; but, next day, the child was taken out un- hurt. Another woman missed a child ; saw that a high wall was tottering, but ran for her son, and brought him out. As she crossed the street, the wall fell, but they were safe ; when the tremendous crash came, the whole street, which she had just crossed, was filled up with part of the ruins of the cathedral. Besides a waving or undulatory movement, vertical, horizontal, and circular or twisting motions were felt. An angular stone pinnacle was particularly noticed, which had been turned half rovmd, without being thrown down, or leaving its base. Persons riding at the time of the great shock, wei'e stopped