90 THE EARTHQUAKE. 



felt. The atmosphere was burning hot, an J the ]. arched 

 and dusty ground was cracked on every side. On the 

 4th of Kovember, about two in the afternoon, large 

 clouds of peculiar blackness enveloped the high mountains 

 of the Brigantine and the Tataraqual. They extended 

 by degrees as far as the zenith. About four in the after- 

 noon Humboldt and Bonpland heard thunder over their 

 heads, at an immense height, not regularly rolling, but 

 with a hollow and often interrupted sound. At the mo- 

 ment of the strongest electric explosion, at twelve minutes 

 past four, there were two shocks of earthquake, which 

 followed each other at the interval of fifteen seconds. 

 The people ran into the streets, uttering loud cries. Bon- 

 pland, who was leaning over a table, examining plants, 

 was almost thrown on the floor. Humboldt felt the 

 shock very strongly, though he was lying in a hammock. 

 Some slaves, who were drawing water from a well 

 eighteen or twenty feet deep, near the river Manzanares, 

 heard a noise like the explosion of a strong charge of 

 gunpowder. The noise seemed to come from the bottom 

 of the well. 



A few minutes before the first shock there was a 

 very violent blast of wind, followed by electrical rain, 

 falling in great drops. The sky remained cloudy, 

 and the blast of wind was followed by a dead calm, 

 which lasted all night. The sunset presented a pic- 

 ture of extraordinary magnificence. The thick veil 

 of clouds was rent asunder, as in shreds, quite near the 

 horizon ; the sun appeared at 12° of altitude on a sky 

 of indigo-blue. Its disk was enormously enlarged, dis- 

 torted, and undulated towards the edges. The clouds 

 were gilded; and fascicles of divergent rays, reflecting 



