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

370 CONCEPCION. March, 1835. 22d. — We sailed from ValdiA-ia, and on the 4th of March, entered the harbour of Concepcion. While the ship was beating up to the anchorage, which is distant several miles, I was landed on the island of Quiriquina. The mayor-domo of the estate quickly rode down to tell us the terrible news of the great earthquake of the 20th ; — " that not a house in Concepcion, or Talcuhano, (the port) was standing; that seventy villages were destroyed ; and that a great wave had almost washed away the ruins of Talcuhano." Of this latter fact I soon saw abundant proof; the whole coast being strewed over with timber and furniture, as if a thousand great ships had been wrecked. Besides chairs, tables, book- shelves, &c., in great numbers, there were several roofs of cottages, which had been drifted in an almost entire state. The storehouses at Talcuhano had biirst open, and great bags of cotton, yerba, and other valuable merchandise, were scattered about on the shore. During my walk round the island, I observed that numerous fragments of rock, which, from the marine productions adhering to them, must recently have been lying in deep water, had been cast up high on the beach. One of these was a slab six feet by three, and about two feet thick. The island itseK as plainly showed the overwhelming power of the earthquake, as the beach did that of the consequent great wave. The ground was fissured in many parts, in north and south Unes ; which direction perhaps was caused by the yielding of the parallel and steep sides of the narrow island. Some of the fissures near the cliifs were a yard wide : many enormous masses had already fallen on the beach ; and the inhabitants thought, that when the rains commenced, even much greater slips would happen. The effect of the vibration on the hard primary slate, which composes the foundation of the island, was still more curious : the superficial parts of some narrow ridges were as completely shivered, as if they had been blasted by gunpowder. This effect, which was rendered very e^'ident by the fresh fractures and displaced soil, must, during earthquakes, be confined to near the sur-