Humboldt Extends This View To
The Case Of Earthquakes Unaccompanied By Eruptions; But I
Can Hardly Conceive It Possible, That The Small Quantity Of
Aeriform Fluids Which Then Escape From The Fissured Ground,
Can Produce Such Remarkable Effects.
There appears much
probability in the view first proposed by Mr. P. Scrope, that
when the barometer is low,
And when rain might naturally
be expected to fall, the diminished pressure of the atmosphere
over a wide extent of country, might well determine
the precise day on which the earth, already stretched to the
utmost by the subterranean forces, should yield, crack, and
consequently tremble. It is, however, doubtful how far this
idea will explain the circumstances of torrents of rain falling
in the dry season during several days, after an earthquake
unaccompanied by an eruption; such cases seem to
bespeak some more intimate connection between the atmospheric
and subterranean regions.
Finding little of interest in this part of the ravine, we
retraced our steps to the house of Don Benito, where I stayed
two days collecting fossil shells and wood. Great prostrate
silicified trunks of trees, embedded in a conglomerate, were
extraordinarily numerous. I measured one, which was fifteen
feet in circumference: how surprising it is that every
atom of the woody matter in this great cylinder should have
been removed and replaced by silex so perfectly, that each
vessel and pore is preserved! These trees flourished at about
the period of our lower chalk; they all belonged to the fir-
tribe. It was amusing to hear the inhabitants discussing the
nature of the fossil shells which I collected, almost in the
same terms as were used a century ago in Europe, - namely,
whether or not they had been thus "born by nature." My
geological examination of the country generally created a
good deal of surprise amongst the Chilenos: it was long
before they could be convinced that I was not hunting for
mines. This was sometimes troublesome: I found the most
ready way of explaining my employment, was to ask them
how it was that they themselves were not curious concerning
earthquakes and volcanos? - why some springs were hot and
others cold? - why there were mountains in Chile, and not
a hill in La Plata? These bare questions at once satisfied
and silenced the greater number; some, however (like a few
in England who are a century behindhand), thought that all
such inquiries were useless and impious; and that it was
quite sufficient that God had thus made the mountains.
An order had recently been issued that all stray dogs
should be killed, and we saw many lying dead on the road. A
great number had lately gone mad, and several men had been
bitten and had died in consequence. On several occasions
hydrophobia has prevailed in this valley. It is remarkable
thus to find so strange and dreadful a disease, appearing
time after time in the same isolated spot. It has been
remarked that certain villages in England are in like manner
much more subject to this visitation than others.
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