221 



by the most ignorant Indians of Quito, when 

 they show travellers the guaicos, or crevices of 

 Pichincha. 



The subterraneous noise, so frequent during 

 earthquakes, is generally not in the ratio of the 

 strength of the shocks. At Cumana it constantly 

 precedes them, while at Quito, and for a short 

 time past at Caraccas, and in the West India 

 Islands, a noise like the discharge of a battery 

 was heard, a long time after the shocks had 

 ceased. A third kind of phenomenon, the most 

 remarkable of the whole, is the rolling of those 

 subterraneous thunders, which last several 

 months, without being accompanied by the 

 least oscillating motion of the ground *. 



In every country subject to earthquakes, the 

 point where, probably by a particular disposition 

 of the stony strata, the effects are the most sen- 

 sible, is considered as the cause and the focus 

 of the shocks. Thus at Cumana the hill of the 

 castle of St. Antonio, and particularly the emi- 

 nence on which the convent of St. Francis is 



634 and Dr. Young in Rees's New Cyclopedia, Vol. xii, 

 P. 2, art. Earthquake. 



* The subterraneous thunders (bramidus y truenos subter- 

 raneos) of Guanaxuato will be described in the course of this 

 work. (Nouv. Esp., t, p. 47.) The phenomenon of a noise 

 without shocks had already been observed by the ancients. 

 (Aristot. Meteor, lib. ii, ed. Duval, p. 802. Plin. lib. ii, c. 

 80.) 



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