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

3835. ANECDOTES — MOTION OF SEA. 409 lying a full cable's length apart ; and after it had passed they were side by side, with three round turns in their cables. Each vessel had therefore g-one round the other with each wave the bow of one was stove in : to the other little damage was done. A small vessel* was on the stocks, almost ready for launching; she was carried by the sea two hundred yards in-shore, and left there unhurt. A little schooner, at anchor before the town, slipped her cable, and ran out in the offing as the water fell. She met the wave, unbroken, and rose over it as an ordinary swell. The Colocolo-f* was under sail near the eastern entrance of the bay — she likewise met the wave, as a large swell, without inconvenience. Many boats]: put off from the shore before the sea retired : some met the advancing waves before they broke, and rose safely over them ; others, half swamped, struggled through the breakers. The fate of one little boy was extraordinary. A servant woman had taken refuge with him in a boat ; the boat was dashed against an anchor, lying on the shore, and divided. The woman was drowned, but the half of the boat containing the child § was carried out into the bay. It floated, and the boy held firmly. He was picked up afterwards, sitting up- right, holding steadily with both hands, wet and cold, but unhurt. The boy's name is Hodges : his father is an English- man, well known at Talcahuano, and was an officer in the British navy. For several days the sea was strewed with wreck ; not only in the Bay of Concepcion, but outside, in the offing. The shores of Quiriquina Island were covered with broken furni- ture and wood work of all kinds ; so much so, that for weeks afterwards, parties were constantly at work collecting and bringing back property. During three days succeeding that of the ruin the sea ebbed and flowed irregularly, and very frequently : rising and falling for some hours after the shock two or three times in an hour. Eastward of the island of Qui- riquina the swell was neither so large nor so powerful as that » About thirty tons. t Chilian schooner of war. I Chiefly, if not all, whaleboats. § Only four years old.