170 
EARTHQUAKES. 
and frequent on those vast savannahs or prairies,* which 
are scarcely eight or ten toises above the level of the ocean ? 
The earthquakes of Cumana are connected with those of 
the "West India Islands; and it has even been suspected 
that they have some connection with the volcanic phenomena 
of the Cordilleras of the Andes. On the 4th of February 
1797, the soil of the province of Quito suffered such a 
destructive commotion, that near 40,000 natives perished. 
At the same period the inhabitants of the eastern Antilles 
were alarmed by shocks, which continued during eight 
months, when the volcano of Guadaloupe threw out pumice- 
stones, ashes, and gusts of sulphureous vapours. The erup- 
tion of the 27th of September, during which very long-con- 
tinued subterranean noises were heard, was followed on the 
14th of December by the great earthquake of Cumana. 
Another volcano of the West India Islands, that of St. 
Vincent, affords an example of these extraordinary connec- 
tions. This volcano had not emitted flames since 1718 
when they burst forth anew in 1812. The total rain of the 
city of Caracas preceded this explosion thirty-five days, and 
violent oscillations of the ground were felt both in the islands 
and on the coasts ofTerra Firms. 
It has long been remarked that the effects of great earth- 
quakes extend much farther than the phenomena arising 
from burning volcanoes. In studying the physical revolu- 
tions of Italy, in carefully examining the series of the erup- 
tions of Vesuvius and Etna, we can scarcely recognise, not- 
withstanding the proximity of these mountains, any traces of 
a simultaneous action. It is on the contrary beyond a doubt, 
that at the period of the last and preceding destruction of 
Lisbon,! the sea was violently agitated even as far as the 
* The Llanos of Cumana, of New Barcelona, of Calabozo, of A pure 
and of Meta. ’ 
t The 1st of November, 1755, and 31st of March, 1761. During the 
first of these earthquakes, the sea inundated, in Europe, the coasts of 
Sweden, England, and Spain; in America, the islands of Antigua, Bar- 
badoes, and Martinique. At Barbadoes, where the ordinary tides rise 
only from twenty-four to twenty-eight inches, the water rose twenty feet 
in Carlisle Bay. It became at the same time as black as ink; being, 
without doubt, mixed with the petroleum, or asphaltum, which abounds 
at the bottom of the sea, as well on the coasts of the gulf Of Cariaco, as 
