27 



attended with a tremendous noise. On the 

 30th, the lava passed the brink of the crater, 

 and, after a course of four hours, reached the 

 sea. The noise of the explosion " resembled 

 that of alternate discharges of very large cannon 

 and of musketry ; and, which is well worthy of 

 remark, it seemed much louder at sea, at a great 

 distance from the island, than in sight of land, 

 and near the burning volcano." 



The distance in a straight line from the vol- 

 cano of St. Vincent to the rio Apura, near the 

 mouth of the Nula, is two hundred and ten 

 leagues*. The explosions were consequently 

 heard at a distance equal to that between Vesuvius 

 and Paris. This phenomenon, connected with a 

 great number of facts observed in the Cordil- 

 leras of the Andes, shows how much more exten- 

 sive the subterranean sphere of activity of a 

 volcano is, than we are disposed to admit from 

 the small changes effected at the surface of the 

 Globe. The detonations heard during whole 

 days together in the New World, eighty, one 

 hundred, or even two hundred leagues distant 

 from a crater, do not reach us by the propa- 

 gation of the sound through the air ; they are 

 transmitted to us by the ground, perhaps in the 



* Where the contrary is not expressly stated, nautical 

 leagues of twenty to a degree, or two thousand eight hun- 

 dred and fifty-five toises, are always to be understood. 



