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. HEIGHT OF WAVE CONTRASTS. 411 then bursting, poured forth black, fetid, sulphureous water. Near Concepcion similar outbursts of water were seen, and similarly described. By a marked part of the wall of Captain Delano's house, it was ascertained that the body of water reached twenty-five feet above the usual level of high water. It penetrated into the ' altos,'* and left sea- weed hanging to the remains of roofs, or to the tops of broken walls. But this must not be taken as the o-eneral height of the wave. A body of water, rushing upon a sloping beach with such force, would naturally preserve its impetus for some time, and run up the incUned plane, to a great height. Those who watched the waves coming in, considered them, while beyond the shipping, about as high as the upper part of the hull of a frigate ; or from sixteen to twenty feet above the level of the rest of the water in the bay. Only those parts of the wave which encountered opposition broke, until within half a mile of the beach, when the roar became appall- ing. Persons who were standing on the heights, overlooking both bays, saw the sea come swelling into San Vicente at the same time that it advanced upon Talcahuano. The explosion in San Vicente, and the sea advancing from both sides, made them think that the peninsula of Tumbes was about to be separated from the main land, and many ran up the hills until they had reached the very highest point. Strange extremes of injury and harmlessness were among the effects of these overwhelming waves. Buildings were levelled, heavy twenty-four pound guns were moved some yards, and upset; yet a child was carried to sea uninjured; and window- frames, with the glass in them, were thrown ashore upon the island of Quiriquina without a pane being broken ! According to a register, kept by Captain Delano, it appears that his baro- meter fell foui- or five tenths of an inch between the seventeenth and eighteenth of February, and was still falhng on the morn- ing of the eighteenth, after which it rose again. So great f and * First floor rooms. t In Concepcion a fall of two or three tenths indicates bad weather; four or five tenths a gale of wind, with much rain.