Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Mont Blanc And Mont D'Or Will Not Be Ranged In One And
The Same Class.
Even the partisans of the Huttonian or volcanic
theory make a distinction between the lavas melted under the mere
pressure of the atmosphere at the surface of the globe, and those
layers formed by fire beneath the immense weight of the ocean and
superincumbent rocks.
They would not confound Auvergne and the
granitic valley of Caracas in the same denomination; that of a
country of extinct volcanoes.
I never could have pronounced the opinion, that the Silla and the
Cerro de Avila, mountains of gneiss and mica-slate, were in
dangerous proximity to the city of Caracas because they contained a
great quantity of pyrites in subordinate beds of primitive
limestone. But I remember having said, during my stay at Caracas,
that the eastern extremity of Terra Firma appeared, since the great
earthquake of Quito, in a state of agitation, which warranted
apprehension that the province of Venezuela would gradually be
exposed to violent commotions. I added, that when a country had
been long subject to frequent shocks, new subterranean
communications seemed to open with neighbouring countries; and that
the volcanoes of the West India Islands, lying in the direction of
the Silla, north-east of the city, were perhaps the vents, at the
time of an eruption, for those elastic fluids which cause
earthquakes on the coasts of the continent. These considerations,
founded on local knowledge of the place, and on simple analogies,
are very far from a prediction justified by the course of physical
events.
On the 30th of April, 1812, whilst violent commotions were felt
simultaneously in the valley of the Mississippi, in the island of
St. Vincent, and in the province of Venezuela, a subterranean noise
resembling frequent discharges of large cannon was heard at
Caracas, at Calabozo (situated in the midst of the steppes), and on
the borders of the Rio Apure, over a superficies of four thousand
square leagues. This noise began at two in the morning. It was
accompanied by no shock; and it is very remarkable, that it was as
loud on the coast as at the distance of eighty leagues inland. It
was everywhere believed to be transmitted through the air; and was
so far from being thought a subterranean noise, that in several
places, preparations were made for defence against an enemy, who
seemed to be advancing with heavy artillery. Senor Palacio,
crossing the Rio Apure below the Orivante, near the junction of the
Rio Nula, was told by the inhabitants, that the firing of cannon
had been heard distinctly at the western extremity of the province
of Varinas, as well as at the port of La Guayra to the north of the
chain of the coast.
The day on which the inhabitants of Terra Firma were alarmed by a
subterranean noise was that of the great eruption of the volcano in
the island of St. Vincent. That mountain, near five hundred toises
high, had not thrown out lava since the year 1718. Scarcely was any
smoke perceived to issue from it, when, in the month of May 1811,
frequent shocks announced that the volcanic fire was either
rekindled, or directed anew to that part of the West Indies. The
first eruption did not take place till the 27th of April, 1812, at
noon. It was merely an ejection of ashes, but attended with a
tremendous noise. On the 30th, the lava overflowed the brink of the
crater, and, after a course of four hours, reached the sea. The
sound of the explosion is described as resembling that of alternate
discharges of very large cannon and musketry; and it is worthy of
remark, that it seemed much louder to persons out at sea, and at a
great distance from land, than to those within sight of land, and
near the burning volcano.
The distance in a straight line from the volcano of St. Vincent to
the Rio Apure, near the mouth of the Nula, is two hundred and ten
leagues.* (* Where the contrary is not expressly stated, nautical
leagues of twenty to a degree, or two thousand eight hundred and
fifty-five toises, are always to be understood.) The explosions
were consequently heard at a distance equal to that between
Vesuvius and Paris. This phenomenon, in conjunction with a great
number of facts observed in the Cordilleras of the Andes, shows
that the sphere of the subterranean activity of a volcano is much
more extensive than we should be disposed to admit, if we judged
merely from the small changes effected at the surface of the globe.
The detonations heard during whole days together in the New World,
eighty, one hundred, or even two hundred leagues distant from a
crater, do not reach us by the propagation of the sound through the
air; they are transmitted by the earth, perhaps in the very place
where we happen to be. If the eruptions of the volcano of St.
Vincent, Cotopaxi, or Tunguragua, resounded from afar, like a
cannon of immense magnitude, the noise ought to increase in the
inverse ratio of the distance: but observations prove, that this
augmentation does not take place. I must further observe, that M.
Bonpland and I, going from Guayaquil to the coast of Mexico,
crossed latitudes in the Pacific, where the crew of our ship were
dismayed by a hollow sound coming from the depth of the ocean, and
transmitted by the waters. At that time a new eruption of Cotopaxi
took place, but we were as far distant from the volcano, as Etna
from the city of Naples. The little town of Honda, on the banks of
the Magdalena, is not less than one hundred and forty-five leagues*
(* This is the distance from Vesuvius to Mont Blanc.) from
Cotopaxi; and yet, in the great explosions of this volcano, in
1744, a subterranean noise was heard at Honda, and supposed to be
discharges of heavy artillery. The monks of San Francisco spread a
report that the town of Carthagena was besieged and bombarded by
the English; and the intelligence was believed throughout the
country.
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