200 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



were the means of inducing more settlers and speculators to 

 reside among us. 



A shock arising from an earthquake at a considerable dis- 

 tance toward the interior, was felt here, and at Stabroek, on 

 the 10th of December, 1802. It was still more sensible along 

 the Essequebo, but not at all in the Berbice : so that it must 

 have come from a south-west direction, and have nearly spent 

 itself. These shocks are not unfrequent, but they seldom do 

 harm in the flat country. They seem to arise from some ef- 

 forts in the land to lift itself higher, and to grow upwards; for 

 the land is constantly pushing the sea (which of course must 

 retain the same level) to a greater distance ; the inundations 

 of the interior are less frequent, the tides extend less far, and 

 the coast estates, as they are called, become inland property. 

 The incessant efforts of crystallization thrusting its innumerable 

 wedges under the foundations of the mountains, or some other 

 less obvious fossil processes, may cause this gradual elevation 

 of whole continents. The area of lifted land, in order to fill, 

 at a higher level, the surface of globe which it formerly co- 

 vered, must diverge, and crack into perpendicular fissures. 

 This operation seems to be the cause of earthquake, and is 

 universally accompanied, as far as I can learn, with the in- 

 gulphment or absorption of large quantities of water, and 

 sometimes with the subsidence of the sides of the fissures. This 



