394 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



relate, that Anaxim&nder and Pherecydes possessed the art of 

 prognosticating earthquakes ; and Don Juan de Barrenechea, 

 professor ad interim of mathematics in the university of St. 

 Mark, endeavoured to reduce to a computation, by the means 

 of his astronomical clock, this celestial virtue. He did not, 

 however, on this occasion, lay any stress on those prophecies, 

 or astrological dreams, the evidences of the small advancement 

 of kingdoms in the true sciences, that refer to remote times ; 

 hut on the knowledge of the changes of the atmosphere, and 

 of the superficies of the earth, which precede its convulsions. 

 The direction of the latter, which is, generally speaking, the 

 same with that of the chains of mountains, ought likewise to 

 be examined, on account of the advantages it presents. The 

 deep excavations made by the Persians from mount Taurus to 

 the mountains Caucasus and Ararat, to facilitate the transpira- 

 tion of the inflammable substances, freed those regions from 

 the earthquakes which had been frequently observed to follow 

 the diredtion of the above-mentioned mountains. 



On the 8th of February, 1791, at seven in the evening, an 

 earthquake was felt in Lima, with two pretty strong shocks, 

 having an interval of a minute between them. It made a loud 

 report; and its diredtion was S. E. N. W., nearly the same 

 with that followed by all the earthquakes which have made 

 such dreadful devastations in the capital. 



On the loth, iith, 12th, 13th, and 14th, the river over- 

 flowed its banks. This arose from a copious fall of rain which 

 extended for the space of sixty or seventy leagues, beginning 

 at the first elevated land which presents itself in front of Chin~ 

 cha, and following the diredlion of the mountains, which is 

 parallel to the coast as far as the lofty ground in front of Pati- 



vilca.. 



