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JOURNAL. 



Pinchincha than where Humboldt had left his mark. I enquired of 

 him, whether the people in any of the countries he has lived in had 

 an idea that earthquakes could be considered as periodical, and 

 whether the few instances in which they had occurred twice at 

 regular intervals were thought to promise farther coincidences ; men- 

 tioning, that in that case we wanted but a year or two at most of the 

 return of the severe earthquake of this part of Chile. But I could 

 not learn that any Indian superstition or tradition pointed that way, 

 any more than the speculations of European natural philosophers ; 

 and, indeed, twice within these five years, Coquimbo and Copiapo, 

 hitherto described as never touched by these calamities, have been 

 utterly destroyed, and have thus contradicted some theories about 

 situations, soils, &c. * 



18th. — We tried to persuade Mrs. Miers to remain with us, but in 

 vain. She was anxious to return to her children, and accordingly 

 left us in time to get home by daylight. I made a little sketch of the 

 house ; and having found a lithographic press here, I mean to draw it 

 on stone, and so produce the first print of any kind that has been 

 done in Chile ; or, I believe, on this side of South America. 



* This conversation may appear to be imagined after the event ; but it was not so. 

 Our company consisted of Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Miers, Mr. Glennie, and myself; and many 

 a time afterwards did we recall this evening's discourse. 



