422 COSMOS. 



The result of this laborious work, on which I have long 



broken out on a somewhat curvilinear fissure running from South to 

 north, nearly parallel to the volcanic fissure of Central America. In 

 the course of the considerations induced by the simultaueousness of 

 the earthquakes in the valleys of the rivers Ohio, Mississippi, and Ar- 

 kansa,s, with those of the Orinoco, and of the shore of Venezuela, I have 

 already described the little sea of the Antilles, in its connection with 

 the Gulf of Mexico and the great plain of Louisiana, between the Alle- 

 ghanys and the Rocky Mountains, on geognostic views, as a single 

 ancient basin {Voyage aux Regions Eqmnoxiales, t. ii, pp. 5 and 19; see 

 also above, p. 6). This basin is intersected in its centre, between 18 

 and 22 lat. by a plutonic mountain-range from Cape Catoche of the 

 peninsula of Yucatan to Tortola and Virgen gorda. Cuba, Haiti, and 

 Porto Rico, form a range running from west to east, parallel with 

 the granite and gneiss chain of Caraccas. On the other hand, the Little 

 Antilles, which are for the most part volcanic, unite together the plu- 

 tonic chain just alluded to (that of the Great Antilles) and that of 

 the shore of Venezuela, closing the southern portion of the basin on the 

 east. The still active volcanoes of the Little Antilles lie between the 

 parallels of 13 to 16, in the following order, reckoning from south 

 to north : 



The volcano of the island of St. Vincent, stated sometimes at 3197 

 and sometimes at 5052 feet high. Since the eruption of 1718 all re- 

 mained quiet, until an immense ejection of lava took place on the 27th 

 April, 1812. The first commotions commenced as early as May, 1811, 

 near the Crater, three months after the island of Sabrina in the 

 Azores had risen from the sea. They began faintly in the mountain- 

 valley of Caraccas, 3496 feet above the surface of the sea, in December 

 of the same year. The complete destruction of the great city took 

 place on the 26th March, 1812. As the earthquake which destroyed 

 Cumana pn the 14th December, 1796, was with justice ascribed to the 

 eruption of the volcano of Guadaloupe (the end of September, 17S6), 

 in like manner the destruction of Caraccas appears to have been the effect 

 of the reaction of asoutherly volcano of the Antilles, that of St. Vincent. 

 The frightful subterranean noise, like the thundering of cannon, pro- 

 duced by a violent eruption of the latter volcano on the 30th April, 

 1812, was heard on the distant grass-plains (Llanos) of Calabozo, and 

 on the shores of the Rio Apure, 192 geographical miles farther to the 

 west than its junction with the Orinoco (Humboldt, Voy. t. ii, p. 14). 

 The volcano of St. Vincent had thrown out no lava since 1718, but on 

 the 30th April, a stream of lava flowed from the summit crater, and in 

 four hours reached the sea shore. It was a very striking circumstance, 

 and one which has been confirmed to me by very intelligent coasting 

 mariners, that the noise was very much stronger on the open sea, far 

 from the island, than near the shore. 



The volcano of the island S. Lucia, commonly called only a solfa- 

 tara, is scarcely 1200 to 1800 feet high. In the crater are several small 

 basins periodically filled with boiling water. In the year 1766, an 

 ejection of scorise and cinders is said to have been observed, which if 



