56 Royal Society. 



latter case they were accompanied by a hollow sound, resembling 

 that of a heavily laden waggon. The direction in which the shocks 

 were propagated appears to have been from east to west. 



For some time before the earthquake the weather had been fine ; 

 but it became cloudy on the evening which preceded it, and conti- 

 nued so for several subsequent days. At Brussels the barometer had 

 fallen during the three preceding days from 29-421 inches to 29*044 5 

 on the night before the earthquake it had risen to 29*126 ; and a few 

 moments after the event, it stood at 29*233. It continued after- 

 wards to rise j and on the 27th it had reached 30*166. At Liege, 

 however, the barometer remained very low after the earthquake. 

 The shocks lasted about eight or ten seconds. 

 There have been experienced, since the 23d of February, slighter 

 shocks ; and these also were preceded by a great depression of the 

 barometer. 



" Another communication was also read, giving li an Account of 

 some Particulars concerning an Earthquake experienced at Bogota, 

 and in the Cordillera between Bogota and Popayan, on the 16th of 

 November 1827, and the following days." Contained in a letter 

 from Colonel Patrick Campbell, Secretary of Legation, to James 

 Bandinel, Esq. of the Foreign Office. Communicated by Captain 

 Sabine. 



The earthquake is described by the narrator as occurring suddenly, 

 at half-past six o'clock in the evening, whilst he was at dinner. It 

 was announced by a loud rumbling noise ; the whole house shook 

 with violence j the decanters and glasses on the table being thrown 

 down. The family ran for shelter under the door- way of the prin- 

 cipal floor, which they had no sooner reached than they witnessed 

 the fall of the towers of the cathedral opposite to them, with a dread- 

 ful crash. The whole tremor lasted about a minute. The first shock 

 consisted of a long, undulating motion ; the next was quick and vio- 

 lent j and the party found it difficult to preserve their balance, and 

 were affected as if from sea-sickness. The damage sustained by the 

 town of Bogota is immense, and has been estimated at about two 

 millions of dollars, independently of the destruction of the cathedral, 

 which had been completed about nine years ago, and the building of 

 which cost 800,000 dollars. The government palace, and almost all 

 the public offices and barracks, have either been rendered useless, or 

 severely shattered. Of the churches, only those of the Capuchins, 

 Carmelites, and the chapel of the convent " de ki Ensenanza," can 

 be said to have escaped without injury. Few of the houses above 

 one story high are habitable, and even many of the low houses have 

 been thrown down. The whole of the upper part of the Barrio del 

 Rosorio, consisting of buildings of this latter description, now pre- 

 sents nothing but a heap of ruins. Many habitations which had with- 

 stood the first shocks, have given way under those which followed, 

 although incomparably less violent. The injury to dwellings has 

 been remarkably unequal in different parts of the town — some streets 

 having only partially suffered, while others are. totally destroyed. 

 Amidst this widely spreading destruction, it is fortunate that the loss 



of 



