OCR Text |
Show CONCEPCION. March, 1835. 22o.-We sailed from Valdivia, and on the 4th of ~arch, entered the harbour of Concepcion. While the shr~ was beating up to the anchorage, w~i?h ~s distant several miles, I was landed on the island of Qmnquma. The mayor-domo of the estate quickly rode down to tell us the terrible news ?f the great earthquake of the 20th;-" that not a .house m Concepcion, or Talcuhano, (the port) was standmg; that seventy villages were destroyed ; and that a great wave had almost washed away the ruins of Talcuhano." Of this lat.ter fact 1 soon saw abundant proof; the whole coast bemg strewed over with timber and furniture, as if a thousand great ships had been wrecked. Besides chairs, tables, bookshelves, &c., in great numbers, there were several. roofs of cottages, which had been drifted in an almost entire state. The storehouses at Talcuhano had burst 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 bee.n cast up high on the beach. One of these was a slab srx feet by three, and about two feet 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 was fissured in many parts, in north and south lines; which direction perhaps was caused by the yielding of the parallel and steep sides of the 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, 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 evident by the fresh fractures and displaced soil, must, during earthquakes, be confined to near the sur- March, 1835. EFFECTS OF EARTIIQUAKE. r 371 face, for otherwise there would not exist a block of solid rock throughout Chile. This limited action is not improbable, as it is certain, that the surface of any body, when vibrating, is in a different condition from the central parts. It is, perhaps, owing to this same reason, that earthquakes do not cause quite such terrific havoc within deep mines, as would at first have been expected. I believe this convulsion has been more effectual in lessening the size of the island of Quinquina, than the ordinary wear and tear of the weather and the sea during the course of an entire century. The next day I landed at Talcuhano, and afterwards rode to Concepcion. Captain FitzRoy has given so detailed and accurate an account of the earthquake, that it is almost useless for me to say any thing on the subject; but I will extract a few passages from my journal. Both towns presented the most awful yet interesting spectacle I ever beheld. To a person who had formerly known the places, it possibly might have been still more impressive; for the ruins were so mingled together, and the whole scene possessed so little the air of a habitable place, that it was scarcely possible to imagine its former appearance or condition. The earthquake commenced at half-past eleven in the forenoon. If it had happened in the middle of the night the greater number of the inhabitants (which in this one province amount to many thousands),* instead of less than a hundred, must have perished. In Concepcion, each house, or row of houses, stood by itself, a heap or line of ruins ; but in Talcuhano, owing to the great wave, little more than one layer of bricks, tiles, and timber, with here and there part of a wall left standing, could be distinguished. From this circumstance, Concepcion, although not so completely desolated, was a more terrible, and if I may so call it, picturesque sight. The first shock was very sudden. The invariable practice among the residents in * Miers estimates them at 40,000; but the towns in some of the other provinces were likewise overthPOwn. 2 B 2 |