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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At The Same Period The Inhabitants Of The Eastern
Antilles Were Alarmed By Shocks, Which Continued During Eight
Months, When The Volcano Of Guadaloupe Threw Out Pumice-Stones,
Ashes, And Gusts Of Sulphureous Vapours.
The eruption of the 27th
of September, during which very long-continued subterranean noises
were heard, was followed on the 14th of December by the great
earthquake of Cumana.
Another volcano of the West India Islands,
that of St. Vincent, affords an example of these extraordinary
connections. This volcano had not emitted flames since 1718, when
they burst forth anew in 1812. The total ruin of the city of
Caracas preceded this explosion thirty-five days, and violent
oscillations of the ground were felt both in the islands and on the
coasts of Terra Firma.
It has long been remarked that the effects of great earthquakes
extend much farther than the phenomena arising from burning
volcanoes. In studying the physical revolutions of Italy, in
carefully examining the series of the eruptions of Vesuvius and
Etna, we can scarcely recognise, notwithstanding the proximity of
these mountains, any traces of a simultaneous action. It is on the
contrary beyond a doubt, that at the period of the last and
preceding destruction of Lisbon,* the sea was violently agitated
even as far as the New World, for instance, at the island of
Barbados, more than twelve hundred leagues distant from the coasts
of Portugal.
(* Destruction of Lisbon: The 1st of November, 1755, and 31st of
March, 1761. During the first of these earthquakes, the sea
inundated, in Europe, the coasts of Sweden, England, and Spain; in
America, the islands of Antigua, Barbados, and Martinique.
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