upon the Phenomena, of Earthquakes. 333 
Lisbon *, many of the houses were left standing, although few of 
_them were less than four or five stories high. At Lima also, it 
_is only said, that ‘all the buildings, great and small, or at least 
the greatest part of them, were destroyed.”’ Callao likewise, as 
it appears from the accounts we have of it, had many houses left 
unhurt by the earthquake, till the wave came, which overwhelmed 
the whole town, and threw down every thing that lay in its way. 
_All these effects seem to be greatly short of those produced by 
an earthquake that happened at Latacunga, in the year 1698, 
_when the whole town, consisting of more than six hundred houses, 
was entirely destroyed in less than three minutes time, a part of 
one only escaping ; notwithstanding that the houses there are 
never built more than one story high, in order, if possible, to 
avoid these dangers. Ambato, a village about the same size as 
Latacunga, together with a great part of Riobamba, another 
town in the same neighbourhood, were also entirely destroyed by 
the same earthquake, and some others were either destroyed, or 
received considerable damage from it. At the same time, a vol- 
cano burst out suddenly in the neighbouring mountain of Car- 
guayraso, as before-mentioned ; and, ‘* near Ambato, the earth 
opened itself in several places, and there yet remains, to the south - 
of that town, a cleft of four or five feet broad, and about a league 
in length, lying north and south; there are also several other 
like clefts on the other side of the river.” The city of Quitot 
was affected at tlie same time, but received no damage, though 
it is no more than forty-two geographical miles from Latacunga, 
not far from whence the greatest violence of the shock seems to 
have exerted itself. These towns are supposed to stand by far 
the highest of any in the world, being as high above the level of 
the sea, as the tops of some of the highest mountains in Europe; 
and the ground upon which Riobamba stands, wants but ninety 
yards { of being three times as high as Snowdon, the highest 
mountain in Wales. 
84, The country upon which these towns stand, serves as a 
base, from whence arise another set of high lands and mountains, 
which are much the highest in the known world. Amongst these 
mountains there are no less than six voleanos, if not more, within 
an extent of 120 miles long, and less than thirty broad, the 
* See Phil. Trans. vol. xlix. p. 403, where it is said, “‘ of the dwelling- 
houses, there might be about one-fourth of them that tumbled.” 
+ The city of Quito stands lower than the level of Riobamba, by about 
500 yards perpendicular. Though it escaped this, it has lately, however, 
been destroyed by another violent earthquake, that happened on the 28th 
April 1756, of which I have not yet seen any other particulars worth notice. 
t This is according to Antonio d’'Ulloa’s account ; but Mons. Condamine 
makes it exactly three times the height of Snowdon, computing it at 1770 
toises, [See his measure of a degree of the meridian. ] : 
lowest 
