I 



215 



shocks are considered as a local phenomenon ; 

 and as a particular focus, under each point of 

 the Globe exposed to those great catastrophes, is 

 admitted. Wherever new edifices are raised on 

 the ruins of the old, we hear from those who 

 refuse to build, that the destruction of Lisbon 

 on the first of November, 1755, was soon fol- 

 lowed by a second, and not less fatal, on the 

 31st of March, 1761. 



It is a very old * and commonly received opi- 

 nion at Cumana, Acapulco, and Lima, that a 

 perceptible connection exists between earth- 

 quakes, and the state of the atmosphere that 

 precedes these phenomena. On the coasts of 

 New Andalusia, the inhabitants are alarmed, 

 when, in excessively hot weather, and after 

 long droughts, the breeze suddenly ceases to 

 blow, and the sky, clear, and without clouds at 

 the zenith, exhibits near the horizon, at six or 

 eight degrees elevation, the appearance of a red- 

 dish vapor. These prognostics are however very 

 uncertain ; and when the whole of the meteoro- 

 logical variations, at the times when the Globe 

 has been the most agitated, are called to mind, 

 it is found, that violent shocks take place equally 

 in dry and in wet weather ; when the coolest 

 winds blow, or during a dead and suffocating 

 calm. From the great number of earthquakes, 



* Arist. Meteor., Lib. ii, (ecL Duval., t. i, p. 798). Se- 

 neca, Nat. Quaest., lib. vi, c. 12. 



