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 great waves, to high-
water mark, and then as quickly returned to its proper level;
this was also evident by the line of wet sand. The same kind
of quick but quiet movement in the tide happened a few
years since at Chiloe, during a slight earthquake, and created
much causeless alarm. In the course of the evening there
were many weaker shocks, which seemed to produce in the
harbour the most complicated currents, and some of great
strength.
March 4th. - We entered the harbour of Concepcion. While
the ship was beating up to the anchorage, I landed on the
island of Quiriquina. The mayor-domo of the estate quickly
rode down to tell me the terrible news of the great earthquake
of the 20th: - "That not a house in Concepcion or
Talcahuano (the port) was standing; that seventy villages
were destroyed; and that a great wave had almost washed
away the ruins of Talcahuano." Of this latter statement I
soon saw abundant proofs - the whole coast being strewed
over with timber and furniture as if a thousand ships had
been wrecked. Besides chairs, tables, book-shelves, etc., in
great numbers, there were several roofs of cottages, which
had been transported almost whole. The storehouses at Talcahuano
had been burst open, and great bags of cotton, yerba,
and other valuable merchandise were scattered 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 six feet
long, three broad, and two thick.
The island itself as plainly showed the overwhelming
power of the earthquake, as the beach did that of the consequent
great wave. The ground in many parts was fissured
in north and south lines, perhaps caused by the yielding of
the parallel and steep sides of this narrow island. Some of
the fissures near the cliffs were a yard wide. Many enormous
masses had already fallen on the beach; and the inhabitants
thought that when the rains commenced far 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 conspicuous by the
fresh fractures and displaced soil, must be confined to near
the surface, for otherwise there would not exist a block of
solid rock throughout Chile; nor is this improbable, as it is
known that the surface of a vibrating body is affected
differently from the central part.
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