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frighted by oscillations, which were not felt at 

 the surface of the ground. 



I f, in regions the most remote from each other, 

 primitive, secondary, and volcanic rocks, share 

 equally in the convulsive movements of the 

 Globe; we cannot but admire also, that, in 

 ground of little extent, certain classes of rocks 

 oppose themselves to the propagation of the 

 shocks. At Cumana, for instance, before the 

 great catastrophe of 1797, the earthquakes were 

 felt only along the southern and calcareous coast 

 of the gulf of Cariaco, as far as the town of 

 this name ; while in the peninsula of Araya, and 

 at the village of Maniquarez, the ground did 

 not partake of the same agitation. The inhabi- 

 tants of this northern coast, which is composed 

 of mica-slate, built their huts on a motionless 

 earth ; a gulf three or four thousand toises in 

 breadth separated them from a plain covered 

 with ruins, and overturned by earthquakes. 

 This security, founded on the experience of se- 

 veral ages, has vanished ; and since the 14th of 

 December, 1797, new communications appear 

 to have been opened in the interior of the Globe. 

 At present the peninsula of Araya is not merely 

 subject to the agitations of the soil of Cumana, 

 the promontory of mica-slate is become in it's 

 turn a particular centre of the movements. The 

 earth is sometimes strongly shaken at the village 

 of Maniquarez, when on the coast of Cumana 



