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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If The Earth Was Most Agitated On The Coasts,
Because They Are The Lowest Part Of The Land, Why Should Not The
Oscillations Be Equally Strong And Frequent On Those Vast Savannahs
Or Prairies,* Which Are Scarcely Eight Or Ten Toises Above The
Level Of The Ocean?
(* The Llanos of Cumana, of New Barcelona, of
Calabozo, of Apure, and of Meta.)
The earthquakes of Cumana are connected with those of the West
India Islands; and it has even been suspected that they have some
connection with the volcanic phenomena of the Cordilleras of the
Andes. On the 4th of February 1797, the soil of the province of
Quito suffered such a destructive commotion, that near 40,000
natives perished. 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. At
Barbados, where the ordinary tides rise only from twenty-four to
twenty-eight inches, the water rose twenty feet in Carlisle Bay. It
became at the same time as black as ink; being, without doubt,
mixed with the petroleum, or asphaltum, which abounds at the bottom
of the sea, as well on the coasts of the gulf of Cariaco, as near
the island of Trinidad. In the West Indies, and in several lakes of
Switzerland, this extraordinary motion of the waters was observed
six hours after the first shock that was felt at
Lisbon - Philosophical Transactions volume 49 pages 403, 410, 544,
668; ibid. volume 53 page 424. At Cadiz a mountain of water sixty
feet high was seen eight miles distant at sea. This mass threw
itself impetuously on the coasts, and beat down a great number of
houses; like the wave eighty-four feet high, which on the 9th of
June, 1586, at the time of the great earthquake of Lima, covered
the port of Callao. - Acosta Hist. Natural de las Indias edition de
1591 page 123. In North America, on Lake Ontario, violent
agitations of the water were observed from the month of October
1755. These phenomena are proofs of subterraneous communications at
enormous distances. On comparing the periods of the great
catastrophes of Lima and Guatimala, which generally succeed each
other at long intervals, it has sometimes been thought, that the
effect of an action slowly propagating along the Cordilleras,
sometimes from north to south, at other times from south to north,
may be perceived. - Cosmo Bueno Descripcion del Peru ed. de Lima
page 67. Four of these remarkable catastrophes, with their dates,
may be here enumerated.)
When the shocks are not simultaneous, or do not follow each other
at short intervals, great doubts may be entertained with respect to
the supposed communication of the movement.)
Several facts tend to prove that the causes which produce
earthquakes have a near connection with those which act in volcanic
eruptions. The connection of these causes was known to the
ancients, and it excited fresh attention at the period of the
discovery of America. The discovery of the New World not only
offered new productions to the curiosity of man, it also extended
the then existing stock of knowledge respecting physical geography,
the varieties of the human species, and the migrations of nations.
It is impossible to read the narratives of early Spanish
travellers, especially that of the Jesuit Acosta, without
perceiving the influence which the aspect of a great continent, the
study of extraordinary appearances of nature, and intercourse with
men of different races, must have exercised on the progress of
knowledge in Europe. The germ of a great number of physical truths
is found in the works of the sixteenth century; and that germ would
have fructified, had it not been crushed by fanaticism and
superstition. We learned, at Pasto, that the column of black and
thick smoke, which, in 1797, issued for several months from the
volcano near that shore, disappeared at the very hour, when, sixty
leagues to the south, the towns of Riobamba, Hambato, and Tacunga
were destroyed by an enormous shock. In the interior of a burning
crater, near those hillocks formed by ejections of scoriae and
ashes, the motion of the ground is felt several seconds before each
partial eruption takes place.
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