21 



followed during ages a determinate direction. 

 The inhabitants of the Andes say with simplicity, 

 speaking of an intermediary ground, which is 

 not affected by the general motion, " that it 

 forms a bridge" (que hate puentej : as if they 

 meant to indicate by this expression, that the 

 undulations are propagated at an immense depth 

 under an inert rock. 



Fifteen or eighteen hours after the great 

 catastrophe, the ground remained tranquil. The 

 night, as we have already observed, was fine 

 and calm ; and the commotions did not recom- 

 mence till after the 27th. They were then at- 

 tended with a very loud and long continued 

 subterranean noise (bramido). The inhabitants 

 of Caraccas wandered into the country ; but the 

 villages and farms having suffered as much as 

 the town, they could find no shelter till they 

 were beyond the mountains of Los Teques, in 

 the valleys of Aragua, and in the Llanos or 

 Savannahs. No less than fifteen oscillations 

 were often felt in one day. On the 5th of April 

 there was almost as violent an earthquake, as 

 that which overthrew the capital. During seve- 

 ral hours the ground was in a state of perpe- 

 tual undulation. Large masses of earth fell 

 in the mountains ; and enormous rocks were 

 detached from the Silla of Caraccas. It was 

 even asserted, and this opinion prevails still in 

 the country, that the two domes of the Silla sunk 



