35 



months, without shaking the earth, in regions 

 far distant from active volcanoes. 



In proportion as equinoctial America shall 

 increase in culture and population, and the 

 system of volcanoes of the central table-land 

 of Mexico, of the Caribbee islands, of Popayan, 

 of Los Pastos, and Quito, are more attentively 

 observed, the connection of eruptions and of 

 earthquakes, which precede and sometimes 

 accompany these eruptions, will be more gene- 

 rally recognized. The volcanoes we have just 

 mentioned, particularly those of the Andes, 

 which rise above the enormous height of two 

 thousand five hundred toises, present great ad- 

 vantages for observation. The periods of their 

 eruptions are singularly regular. They remain 

 thirty or forty years without emitting scoriae, 

 ashes, or even vapours. In this interval, I 

 could not perceive the smallest trace of smoke 

 on the summit of Tunguragua or Cotopaxi, A 

 gust of vapours, issuing from the crater of Mount 

 Vesuvius, scarcely attracts the attention of the 

 inhabitants of Naples, accustomed to the move- 

 ments of that little volcano, which throws out 

 slags sometimes during two or three years suc- 

 cessively. It thence becomes difficult to judge, 

 whether the emission of slags have been more 

 frequent at the time when an earthquake has 

 been felt in the Apennines. On the ridge of 

 the Cordilleras every thing assumes a mora 



d 2 



