11 



to have been observed, at Cumana and Caraccas, 

 that the rains were less frequently attended with 

 thunder from the year 1792 ; and the total de- 

 struction of Cumana in 1797, and the commo- 

 tions felt* in 1800, 1801, and 1802, at Mara- 

 caibo, Porto Cabello, and Caraccas, have not 

 failed to be attributed to " an accumulation of 

 electricity in the interior of the Earth." It would 

 be difficult for a person, who has lived a long 

 time in New Andalusia, or in the low regions of 

 Peru, to deny, that the season the most to be 

 dreaded from the frequency of earthquakes is 

 that of the beginning of the rains, which is 

 however the time of thunder storms. The at- 

 mosphere, and the slate of the surface of the 

 globe, seem to have an influence unknown to 

 us on the changes produced at great depths ; 

 and I believe, that the connection, which some 

 persons pretend to recognize between the ab- 

 sence of thunder storms and the frequency of 

 earthquakes, is rather a physical hypothesis 

 framed by the half-learned of the country, than 

 the result of long experience. The coincidence 

 of certain phenomena may be favoured by 

 chance. The extraordinary commotions felt 

 almost continually during two years on the bor- 

 ders of the Missisippi and the Ohio, and which 

 coincided in 1812 with those of the valley of Ca- 



* Dc Pons, vol. i. p. 125. 



