368 Scientific Intelligence. 



What effect a pressure of 400 fathoms or more will have on the glass- 

 globe above mentioned, Captain Dixey has engaged to ascertain for me 

 on his return to America, if opportunity shall offer." — Phil. Mag. July 

 1828, p. 37. 



32. Account of the Earthquake at Bogota, and in the Cordillera, be- 

 tween Bogota and Popuyan, 16th November 1827. By Colonel P. Camp- 

 bell. The following is an abstract of the paper read before the Hoyal 

 Society of London on the 8th May. — 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; the decanters and glasses on the table 

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

 principal floor, which they had no sooner reached than they witnessed the 

 fall of the towers of the cathedral opposite to them, with a dreadful crash. 

 The whole tremor lasted about a minute. The first shock consisted of a 

 long, undulating motion; the next was quick and violent; 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 pa- 

 lace, and almost all the public offices and barracks, have either been ren- 

 dered useless, or severely shattered. Of the churches, only those of the 

 Capuchins, Carmelites, and the chapel of the convent ff de la 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 presents nothing but 

 a heap of ruins. Many habitations which had withstood 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 for- 

 tunate that the loss of lives has been very inconsiderable, being, in the city 

 of Bogota, limited to only five or six persons. 



It appears that the earthquake was not felt much to the north of Bo- 

 gota ; but to the south the devastation has been most extensive. Through- 

 out the whole of the plain of Bogota, as far as the towns of Purificacion 

 and Neiva, there remains no church or public edifice of importance that 

 has not been either overthrown or materially damaged. In the towns of 

 Purificacion and Ibogue, the shock was so powerful as to throw down 

 many houses constructed of cane, with thatched roofs. In Neiva, not 

 only were all the public buildings destroyed by the earthquake, but tor- 

 rents of rain conspired to increase the havoc. Even straw-huts were level- 

 led with the ground ; and the roofs of some of them taking fire, added to 



