7 Natural History of Volcanos and Earthquakes. 45 
Ay 
ted hydrogen.* These last may have occasioned also the de- 
struction of the fish in the sea, and in lakes, during earthquakes ; 
many instances of which are known. The bursting forth of 
flames from the earth and from the sea, which is so often men- 
tioued,t also indicates the presence of inflammable gases. How- 
ever, although this is corroborated by the fire-damp in mines, the 
isengagement of sulphuretted hydrogen while boring artesian 
wells, and the not uncommon exhalations of inflammable gas from 
the earth, yet it is difficult to account for their inflammation. This 
difficulty would disappear, if observation had found flames only 
to occur in really volcanic districts.t But at any rate, it is going 
rather too far to take the explosion of fire-damp for the cause of 
earthquakes, as Kries does.|| It is not impossible, that what has 
been taken for flames, if not altogether an illusion, was only an 
appearance of light, produced by the sudden expansion of highly 
compressed gases, exactly the same as is seen when an air-gun is 
discharged in the dark. 
he heating and boiling up of the water in the sea and in 
lakes, the spouting up of streams of water, as well as the ejection 
of various substances from fissures in the earth,$ which have oc- 
oe 
holes, as rats, mice, reptiles, d&c., commonly quit their abodes shortly before earth- 
quakes. Crocodiles quit their pools in the Llanos, and remove to the continent, 
Relat. Hist. t. v, p. 57. Von Humboldt moreover relates that dogs, goats, and 
particularly hogs, which have a keen smel), and turn up the ground, are suddenly 
affect » and a great number of these latter animals have been found suffocat 
during the earthquakes in Peru. i 
"Von Humboldt, ibid. t. i, p- 484, andt. ii, p. 73. Von Hoff, ibid, t. xii, p. 567, 
'. xviii, p. 46. See also Philos. Trans. t. xlix, p. 415. ie 
t Von Humboldt, ibid. Gehler’s Physikal. Worterbuch, new edit., t. iii, p- 
804. Also during the earthquake of Lisbon (Philos. Trans. ibid.) and on the isl- 
and of Matschian, (Hist. de la Conquéte des Molluques, t, iii, p. 318) the bursting 
forth of flames is reported to have taken place. 
¢ Von Humboldt mentions flames which rise from time to time out of two ex- 
tensive caverns inthe ravine of the Cuchivano. This phenomenon was accom- 
Panied, during the last great earthquake at Cumana, with a continued hollow 
subterranean noise. . The flames are more especially to be seen during the rainy 
Season, 
| In his prize essay on the causes of earthquakes. 
Von Hoff 1. ¢. t. xxv; pe 7 xix, p. 421. At the time of the earthquakes, 
: 73, tx . 
Which destroyed a part of Italy, (1702-1703,) many rents were formed in the 
: as thrown up higher than the trees in the neighborhood. Flames and a 
thick smoke rose from the neighboring hills, which continued three days with 
Some Mterruptions. Hist. de l’ Acad, an. 1704, p. 10. During the earthquake, 
