Ai...
! i
422 N O R T H E R N C H I L E . May, 1835.
(the first time this year) for about five hours. With this
shower, the farmers, who plant corn near the sea-coast
where the atmosphere is more humid, would break up the
ground; with a second, put the seed in: and if a third
should fall, they would reap in the spring a good harvest.
It was interesting to watch the effect of this trifling amount
of moisture. Twelve hours afterwards the ground appeared
as dry as ever; yet after an interval of ten days, all the hills
were faintly tinged with green patches; the grass being
sparingly scattered in hair-like fibres a full inch in length.
Before this shower every part of the surface was hare as on a
high road. . .
In the evening. Captain FitzRoy and myself were dming
with Mr. Edwards, an English resident well known for his
hospitality by all who have visited Coquimbo, when a sharp
earthquake happened. I heard the forecoming rumble, but
from the screams of the ladies, the running of servants, and
the rush of several of the gentlemen to the doorway, I could
not distinguish the motion. Some of the women afterwards
were crying with terror, and one person said he should not be
able to sleep all night, or if he did, it would only be to dream
of falling houses. The father of this gentleman had lately lost
all his property at Talcahaano, and he himself only just escaped
a falling roof at Valparaiso, in 1822. He mentioned a
curious coincidence which then happened: he was playing
at cards, when a German, one of the party, got up, and said
he would never sit in a room in these countries with the door
shut, since, owing to his having done so, he had nearly lost
his life at Copiapo. Accordingly he opened the door; and no
sooner had he done this, than he cried out, “ Here it comes
again !” and the famous shock commenced. The whole party
escaped. The danger in an earthquake is not from the time
lost in opening a door, but from the chance of its becoming
jammed by the movement of the walls.
It is impossible to be much surprised at the fear which
natives and old residents, though some of them known to be
men of great command of mind, so generally experience during
May, 1835. 1> A 11A L L E L T E K R A 0 E S . 42.5
earthquakes. I think, however, this excess of panic may be
partly attributed to a want of habit in governing their fears ;
the usual restraint of shame being here absent. Indeed, the
natives do not like to see a person indifferent. I heard of two
Englishmen who, sleeping in the open air, during a smart
shock, knowing there was no danger, did not rise. The
natives cried out indignantly, “ Look at those heretics, they
will not even get out of their beds ! ”
I spent two or three days in examining the step-formed
terraces of shingle first described by Captain Basil Hall, in his
work, so full of spirited descriptions, on the west coast of
America. Mr. Lyell concluded from the account, that they
must have been formed by the sea during the gradual rising
of the land. Such is the case : on some of the steps which
sweep round from within the valley, so as to front the coast,
shells of existing species both lie on the surface, and are
embedded in a soft calcareous stone. This bed of the most
modern tertiary epoch passes downward into another, containing
some living species associated with others now lost.
Amongst the latter may be mentioned shells of an enormous
perna and an oyster, and the teeth of a gigantic shark, closely
allied to, or identical with the Carcharías Megalodcn of ancient
Europe; the bones of which, or of some cetaceous animal,
are also present, in a silicified state, in great numbers. At
Guasco, the phenomenon of the parallel terraces is very
strikingly seen: no less than seven perfectly level, but
unequally broad plains, ascending by steps, occur on one or
both sides the vaUey. So remarkable is the contrast of the
successive horizontal lines, corresponding on each side, with
the irregular outline of the surrounding mountains, that it
attracts the attention of even those who feel no interest regarding
the causes, which have modelled the surface of the
land. The origin of the terraces of Coquimbo is precisely
the same, according to my view, with that of llie plains of
Patagonia; the only difference is that the plains are rather
broader than the terraces, and that they front the Atlantic
ocean instead of a valley,—which valley, however, was for