SB 



ations or small atmospheric tides, was no way 

 interrupted. The mercury was precisely at the 

 minimum of height at the moment of the earth- 

 quake ; it continued rising till eleven in the 

 evening, and sunk again till half after four in 

 the morning, conformable to the law which 

 regulates the barometrical variations. In the 

 night between the 3d and 4th of November, 

 the reddish vapour was so thick, that I could 

 not distinguish the place of the moon, except 

 by a beautiful halo of 20° diameter. 



It was scarcely twenty-two months since the 

 town of Cumana had been almost totally de- 

 stroyed by an earthquake. The people look on 

 the vapours which darken the horizon, and the 

 failure of the breeze during the night, as prog- 

 nostics infallibly disastrous. We had frequent 

 visits from persons, who wished to know if our 

 instruments indicated new shocks for the next 

 day. The inquietude was particularly great and 

 general, when on the 5th of November, exactly 

 at the same hour as the preceding day, there 

 was a violent gust of wind, attended by thun- 

 der, and a few drops of rain. No shock was 

 felt. The wind and storm returned for five or 

 six days at the same hour, almost at the same 

 minute. The inhabitants of Cumana, and of 

 many other places between the tropics, have 

 long ago made the observation, that those at- 

 mospherical changes, which appear the most 



