308 MITCHILL ON THE EARTHQUAKES AT VENEZUELA. 



The Leading Facts relative to the Earthquakes which desolated Vene- 

 zuela, in South America, in the months of M arch and April, 1812. 



During the time that North America was shaken by earthquakes of 

 greater violence than had been experienced before, the regions of the 

 southern section of the western hemisphere, were the seat of more ter- 

 rible disorders from the same cause. 



Mr. Drouet has written the most scientific history of them that I 

 have seen. He had visited Venezuela in a military capacity, and was 

 there when the earthquakes occurred. On his return to Guadaloupe, 

 he published in French a description of the tremendous events that had 

 happened where he had been. From that the materials forming the 

 body of this essay have been extracted. 



This ingenious gentleman states, that the mountains surrounding the 

 city of Caraccas, and those forming the chain lying between it and the 

 port of Laguira, have the appearance of extinguished volcanoes. Par- 

 cels of lava are found in abundance, as are likewise confused masses of 

 quartz, broken granites, portions of metals which had undergone fusion, 

 with iron and copper almost carbonized; whence, he thinks, it may be 

 concluded that the country had long before experienced the operation 

 of volcanic eruptions. 



At the base of these mountains there is no natural disposition of the 

 earth in horizontal layers; but the soil and stones are irregularly jumbled 

 together. The mountain called Sylla contains more volcanic produc- 

 tions than any in the neighbourhood of Caraccas, and its summit is nine 

 hundred toises (five thousand four hundred French feet) above the level 

 of the ocean. The city and plain of Caraccas are^nly five hundred and 



