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more to be feared. The houses of Angostura 

 are lofty, agreeable, and the greater number 

 built of stone ; which construction proves, that 

 the inhabitants have little dread of earthquakes. 

 But unhappily this security is not founded on 

 induction from very precise facts. It is true, 

 that the shore of Nueva Andalusia sometimes 

 undergoes very violent shocks, without the com- 

 motion being propagated across the Llanos. 

 The fatal catastrophe of Cumana on the 4th 

 of February, 1797, was not felt at Angostura ; 

 but in the great earthquake of 1766, which des- 

 troyed the same city, the granitic soil of the two 

 banks of the Oroonoko was agitated as far 

 as the Raudales of Atures and Maypures. 

 South of these Raudales shocks are sometimes 

 felt, which are confined to the basin of the Upper 

 Oroonoko and the Rio Negro. They appear to 

 depend on a volcanic focus distant from that of 

 the Caribbee islands. We were told by the mis- 

 sionaries at Javita and San Fernando de Ata- 

 bapo, that in 1798 violent earthquakes took 

 place between the Guaviare and the Rio Negro, 

 which were not propagated on the north toward 

 Maypures. We cannot be sufficiently attentive 

 to whatever relates to the simultaneity of the os- 

 cillations, and to the independance of the move- 

 ments in contiguous ground. Every thing seems 

 to prove, that the propagation of the commotion 

 is not superficial, but depends on very deep crevi- 

 ces, that terminate in different centres of action. 



