At The Island Of S. Maria (About Thirty Miles
Distant) The Elevation Was Greater; On One Part, Captain Fitz
Roy Founds Beds Of Putrid Mussel-Shells _Still Adhering To The
Rocks_, Ten Feet Above High-Water Mark:
The inhabitants had
formerly dived at lower-water spring-tides for these shells.
The elevation of this province is
Particularly interesting,
from its having been the theatre of several other violent
earthquakes, and from the vast numbers of sea-shells scattered
over the land, up to a height of certainly 600, and I
believe, of 1000 feet. At Valparaiso, as I have remarked,
similar shells are found at the height of 1300 feet: it is
hardly possible to doubt that this great elevation has been
effected by successive small uprisings, such as that which
accompanied or caused the earthquake of this year, and likewise
by an insensibly slow rise, which is certainly in progress on
some parts of this coast.
The island of Juan Fernandez, 360 miles to the N.E., was,
at the time of the great shock of the 20th, violently shaken,
so that the trees beat against each other, and a volcano burst
forth under water close to the shore: these facts are remarkable
because this island, during the earthquake of 1751, was
then also affected more violently than other places at an equal
distance from Concepcion, and this seems to show some
subterranean connection between these two points. Chiloe, about
340 miles southward of Concepcion, appears to have been
shaken more strongly than the intermediate district of Valdivia,
where the volcano of Villarica was noways affected,
whilst in the Cordillera in front of Chiloe, two of the volcanos
burst-forth at the same instant in violent action. These
two volcanos, and some neighbouring ones, continued for a
long time in eruption, and ten months afterwards were
again influenced by an earthquake at Concepcion. Some
men, cutting wood near the base of one of these volcanos,
did not perceive the shock of the 20th, although the whole
surrounding Province was then trembling; here we have an
eruption relieving and taking the place of an earthquake,
as would have happened at Concepcion, according to the
belief of the lower orders, if the volcano at Antuco had not
been closed by witchcraft. Two years and three-quarters
afterwards, Valdivia and Chiloe were again shaken, more
violently than on the 20th, and an island in the Chonos
Archipelago was permanently elevated more than eight feet.
It will give a better idea of the scale of these phenomena, if
(as in the case of the glaciers) we suppose them to have
taken place at corresponding distances in Europe: - then
would the land from the North Sea to the Mediterranean
have been violently shaken, and at the same instant of time a
large tract of the eastern coast of England would have been
permanently elevated, together with some outlying islands, - a
train of volcanos on the coast of Holland would have burst
forth in action, and an eruption taken place at the bottom of
the sea, near the northern extremity of Ireland - and lastly,
the ancient vents of Auvergne, Cantal, and Mont d'Or would
each have sent up to the sky a dark column of smoke, and
have long remained in fierce action.
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