Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.3)

Feb. 1835. GREAT EARTHQUAKE. 369 much longer. The rocking of the ground was most sensible. The undulations appeared to my companion and myself to come from due east ; whilst others thought they proceeded from south-west ; which shows how difficult it is in all cases to perceive the direction of these vibrations. There was no difficulty in standing upright, but the motion made me almost giddy. It was something like the movement of a vessel in a little cross ripple, or still more like that felt by a person skating over thin ice, which bends under the weight of his body. A bad earthquake at once destroys the oldest asso- ciations : the world, the very emblem of all that is solid, has moved beneath our feet like a crust over a fluid ; — one second of time has conveyed to the mind a strange idea of insecurity, which hours of reflection would never have cre- ated. In the forest, as a breeze moved the trees, I only felt the earth tremble, but saw no consequences from it. Captain FitzRoy and the officers were at the town during the shock, and there the scene was more awful ; for although the houses, from being built of wood, did not fall, yet they were so violently shaken that the boards creaked and rattled. The people rushed out of doors in the greatest alarm. I feel little doubt that it is these accompaniments which cause that horror of earthquakes, experienced by all those who have thus seen as well as felt their eff"ects. Within the forest it was a deeply interesting, but by no means an awe- exciting phenomenon. The tides were very curiously affected. The great shock took place at the time of low water ; and an old woman who was on the beach told me, that the water flowed very quickly, but not in big waves, to high-water mark, and then as quickly returned to its pro- per level ; this was also evident by the line of wet sand. This same kind of quick but quiet movement in the tide happened a few years since at Chiloe, during a slight earth- quake, and created much causeless alarm. In the course of the evening there were other weaker shocks, all of which seemed to produce in the harbour the most complicated cur- rents, and some of great strength. VOL. III. 2 B