Page:A history of Chile.djvu/447

Rh Bergara. Above the bar it is navigable for a distance of one hundred miles; a steamer plies upon it between Concepcion and Nacimiento. The Maule is one hundred and fifty miles long and is navigable a distance of seventy miles. The Valdivia has a length of one hundred miles, of vyhich fifty are navigable. The Imperial is navigable only thirty out of its one hundred and fifty miles. The Tolten has a length of sixty miles and is navigable. The Bueno is navigable twenty miles out of one hundred and ten. Going farther north the streams have considerable size, but are not navigable, as they are shallow and the water they bring down from the mountains is used for purposes of irrigation. Such are are the rivers Maypo, Rapel, Coquimbo, Huasco, Copiapo, Itata, Aconcagua, Mataquito, Limari and others — quite large streams at certain seasons of the year, but shallow in summer. The Copiapo often becomes a sandy bed during the dry season. Further north the river beds are deep gorges, for the most part destitute of water.

Earthquakes are of frequent occurrence, but are usually so light that but little damage is done by them. Scarcely a year passes that there are not rumblings or shocks somewhere, but the destructive earthquakes happen rarely. They appear to be most severe in the south and are, indeed, seldom destructive in the northern provinces. In the period of two centuries and a half following the settlement of Chile by the Spaniards, there occurred five great earthquakes. This would be an average of two for each century. The first was early in the sixteenth century and destroyed some villages in the south; the second was in 1647, and partially destroyed Santiago; the third in 1657, nearly demolished the capital ; the fourth was on June 18th, 1730, when Concepcion was considerably shaken up,