PHENOMENA OF EARTHQUAKES. 135 



veins of quartz, containing pyrites, carbonated iron- 

 ore, sulphuretted silver, and gray copper. Tlie 

 works that had been undertaken were superficial, 

 and now filled up. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Earthquakes of Caraccas. 



Extensive Connexion of Earthquakes-Eruption of the Volcano of St. 

 Vincent's— Earthqualie of the 26ai March, 1812— Destruction of the 

 City— Ten Thousand of the Inhabitants killed— Consternation of the 

 Survivors— Extent of the Commotions. 



The valley of Caraccas, a few years after Hum- 

 boldt's visit, became the theatre of one of those 

 physical revolutions which from time to time pro- 

 duce violent alterations upon the surface of our 

 planet; involving the overthrow of cities, the de- 

 struction of human life, and a temporary agitatiojj,- 

 of those elements of nature on which the "Systemrbf 

 the universe is founded. In the narrative of his 

 .Tourney to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Con- 

 tinent, he has recorded all that he could collect with 

 certainty respecting the earthquake of the 26th 

 March, 1812, which destroyed the city of Caraccas, 

 together with 20,000 inhabitants of the province of 

 Venezuela. 



When our travellers visited those countries, they 

 found it to be a general opinion that the eastern 

 parts of the coasts were most exposed to the de- 

 structive effects of such concussions, and that the 

 elevated districts, remote from the shores, were in 

 a great measure secure ; but in 1811 all these ideas 

 were proved groundless. 



At Humboldt's arrival in Terra Firma, he was 

 struck with the connexion which appeared between 



