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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When We Consider Geologically The Basin Of
The Caribbean Sea, And Of The Gulf Of Mexico, We Find It Bounded
On
the south by the coast-chain of Venezuela and the Cordilleras of
Merida and Pamplona; on the east by
The mountains of the West India
Islands, and the Alleghanies; on the west by the Andes of Mexico,
and the Rocky Mountains; and on the north by the very
inconsiderable elevations which separate the Canadian lakes from
the rivers which flow into the Mississippi. More than two-thirds of
this basin are covered with water. It is bordered by two ranges of
active volcanoes; on the east, in the Carribee Islands, between
latitudes 13 and 16 degrees; and on the west in the Cordilleras of
Nicaragua, Guatimala, and Mexico, between latitudes 11 and 20
degrees. When we reflect that the great earthquake at Lisbon, of
the 1st of November, 1755, was felt almost simultaneously on the
coasts of Sweden, at lake Ontario, and at the island of Martinique,
it may not seem unreasonable to suppose, that all this basin of the
West Indies, from Cumana and Caracas as far as the plains of
Louisiana, should be simultaneously agitated by commotions
proceeding from the same centre of action.
It is an opinion very generally prevalent on the coasts of Terra
Firma, that earthquakes become more frequent when electric
explosions have been during some years rare. It is supposed to have
been observed, at Cumana and at Caracas, that the rains were less
frequently attended with thunder from the year 1792; and the total
destruction of Cumana in 1797, as well as the commotions felt in
1800, 1801, and 1802, at Maracaibo, Porto Cabello, and Caracas,
have not failed to be attributed to an accumulation of electricity
in the interior of the earth.
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