lOG EARTHQUAKES IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. [Ch. XXVIII 



accidental presence of Sir Stamford Eaffles^ then governor of 

 Java^ we should scarcely have heard in Europe of this 

 tremendous catastrophe. He required all the residents in 

 the various districts under his authority to send in a state- 



w 



ment of the circumstances which occurred within their own 

 knowledge ; but, valuable as* were their communications, they 

 are often calculated to excite rather than to satisfy the 

 curiosity of the geologists. They mention, that similar 

 effects, though in a less degree, had, ahout seven years before 

 accompanied an eruption of Carang Assam, a volcano in the 

 island of Bali, west of Sumbawa ; but no particulars of that 

 great catastrophe are recorded.^ 



CaraccaSy 1812. — On March 26, 1812, several violent 

 shocks of an earthquake were felt in Caraccas. The surface 

 undulated like a boiling liquid, and terrific sounds were lieard 

 underground. The whole citj with its splendid churches 

 was in an instant a heap of ruins, under which 10,000 of the 

 inhabitants were buried. On April 5, enormous rocks were 

 detached from the mountains. It was believed that the 

 mountain Silla lost from 300 to 360 feet of its height by 

 subsidence; but this was an opinion not founded on any 

 measurement. On April 2 7, a volcano in St. Vincent's threw 

 out ashes ; and, on the 30th, lava flowed from its crater into 

 the sea, while its explosions were heard at a distance equal 

 to that between Vesuvius and Switzerland, the sound being 

 transmitted, as Humboldt supposes, through the ground. 

 During the earthquake which destroyed Caraccas, an immense 

 quantity of water was throw^n out at Valecillo, near Valencia, 

 as also at Porto Caballo, through openings in the earth; 

 and in the Lake Maracaybo the water sank. Humboldt 

 observed that the Cordilleras, composed of gneiss and mica 



medi 



t 



South Carolina and New Madri 



MissonrL 1811-12. 



Previous to the destruction of La Guayra and Caraccas, in 

 1812, earthquakes were felt in South Carolina: and the 



* Life and Services of Sir Stamford 

 Eaffies, p. 241. London, 1830. 



t ITiimboldf s Pers. Nar. yol. iv. p. 1 2 ; 

 and Ed. Phil. Journ. vol. i. p. 272. 1819. 



