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sudden a fall, not followed by bad weather, may have been
connected with the cause of the earthquake ; but some doubt
hangs over these observations. The barometers on board the
Beagle, at that time in 'Valdivia, did not indicate any change.
Still, at so great a distance, it does not follow that the mercury
should move similarly ; and (notwithstanding doubts excited
by persons at Concepcion who had frequently looked at Captain
Delano’s barometer,) I am hardly inclined to disbelieve the
extract from his register which he gave me.
In a river near Lirquen, a woman was washing clothes at the
time of the great shock. The water rose instantaneously, from
her feet half way up her legs ; and then subsided gradually to
its usual level. It became very muddy at the same time. On
the sea-beach the water swelled up to high-water mark, at the
time of the shock, without having previously retired. It then
began to retire, and continued falling about half an hour, before
a great wave was seen approaching.
For some days after the devastation the sea did not rise to
its usual marks, hy four or five feet vertically. Some thought
the land had been elevated, but the common and prevailing
idea was, that the sea had retired. This alteration gradually
diminished, till, in the middle of April, there was a difference
of only two feet between the existing, and former high-water
marks. The proof that the land had been raised exists in the
fact, that the island of Santa Maria was upheaved some feet
more than other places.
In going through the narrow passage which separates
Quiriquina from Tumbes, the great waves had swept the steep
shores to a height of thirty feet (vertically) above high-water
mark ; but this elevation was attained, in all probability, only
at the sides of the passage, where the water met with more
obstruction, and therefore washed up higher. That passage
is nearly one mile in width, and has ten fathoms water in the
middle; but the rocks on the western side diminish its navigable
width to half a mile.
'Wherever the invading waves found low land, the destruction
was great, from those lands being in general well cultivated, and
the site of many houses. The low grounds lying at the bottom
of Concepcion Bay, particularly those of the Isla de los
Reyes, were overflowed, and injured irreparably : quantities
of cattle, horses, and sheep were lost. Similar effects, in an
equal or less degree, were felt on the coasts between the river
Itata, and Cape Rumena. Large masses of earth and stone,
many thousand tons in weight, were detached from the clifts,
and precipitous sides of the hills. It was dangerous to go near
the edge of a cliff, for numerous chasms, and cracks in every
direction, showed how doubtful was the support. When walking
on the shore, even at high-water, beds of dead muscles,
numerous chitons and limpets, and withered sea-weed, stiU adhering,
though lifeless, to the rocks on which they had lived,
every where met the eye—^proofs of the upheaval of the land.
Besides suffering from the effects of the earthquake and
three invading waves, which, coming from the west round both
points of the island, united to overflow the low ground near
the village, Santa Maria was upheaved nine feet. I t appeared
that the southern extreme of the island was raised eight feet,
the middle nine, and the northern end upwards of ten feet
The Beagle visited this island twice—at the end of March and
in the beginning of April: at her first visit it was concluded,
from the visible evidence of dead shell-fish, water-marks, an
soundings, and from the verbal testimony of the inhabitants,
that the land had been raised about eight feet. However, on
returning to Concepcion, doubts were raised ; and to settle the
matter beyond dispute, one of the owners of the island, Don
S. Palma, accompanied us the second time. An intelligent
Hanoverian, whose occupation upon this island was sealing, and
who had lived two years there and knew its shores thoroughly,
was also passenger in the Beagle.
When we landed, the Hanoverian, whose name was Anthony
Vogelborg, showed me a spot from which he used formerly to
gather ‘ choros,’* by diving for them at low tide. At dead low
water, standing upon the bed of ‘ choros,’ and holding his hands
up above his head, he could not reach the surface of the water.
* A large kind of muscle.