188 



KARTHQUAKE OF CARACCAS. 



CHAR XIII, 



Connexion 

 of earth- 

 qiukes. 



Cessation of 

 ruin. 



Commence- 

 ment of the 

 tartliquako. 



Successive 

 sliuckH. 



beginning of 1811 till 181-3, a vast extent of the earth's 

 surface, limited by the meridian of the Azores, the 

 valley of the Ohio, the cordilleras of New Grenada, the 

 coasts of Venezuela, and the volcanoes of the West Indies, 

 was shaken by subterranean commotions, indicative of a 

 common agency exerted at a great depth in the interior 

 of the globe. At the period when these eartliquakes 

 commenced in the valley of the Mississippi, the city of 

 Caraccas felt the first shock in December 1811, and on 

 the 20th of Mavdi 1812 it was totally destroyed, 



" The inhal)itants of Terra Firma were ignorant of 

 the agitation, which on the one hand the volcano of the 

 island of St Vincent had experienced, and on the other 

 the basin of the Mississippi, where on the 7th and 8t]i 

 of February 1812 the ground was day and night in a 

 state of continual oscillation. At this period the province 

 of Venezuela laboured under great drought ; not a drop 

 of rain had fellen at Caraccas, or to the distance of 311 

 miles around, during the five months whicli preceded 

 tlie destruction of the capital. The 26th March was 

 excessively hot ; the air was calm and the sky cloudless. 

 It was Holy Thursday, and a great part of the popula- 

 tion was in the churches. Tlie calamities of the day 

 were preceded by no indications of danger. At seven 

 minutes after four in the evening the first commotion 

 was felt. It was so strong as to make the bells of the 

 churches ring. It lasted from five to six seconds, and 

 was immediately followed by another shock of from ten 

 to twelve seconds, during which the ground was in a 

 continual state of undulation, and heaved like a fluid 

 under cl)ullition. The danger was thought to be over, 

 when a prodigious subterranean noise was heard, re- 

 sembling the rolling of thunder, but louder and more 

 ])rolonge(l than that heard within the tropics during 

 thunder-storms. This noise preceded a perpendicular 

 motion of about three or four seconds, followed by an 

 undulatory motion of somewhat longer duration. The 

 shocks were in opposite directions, from north to south 

 and from cast to west. It was impossible that any thing 



