348 
PEOCKSOSTICS or J3AETHQUAKK9. 
i n f? the most brilliant rainbow hues, extended oxer the 
heavens. A great crowd of people assembled in the public 
square. This celestial phenomenon, — the earthquake, — the 
thunder which accompanied it, — the red vapour seen during 
so many days, all were regarded as the effect of the 
eclipse. 
About nine in the evening there was another shock, much 
slighter than the former, but attended with a subterraneous 
noise. The barometer wa3 a little lower than usual ; but 
the progress of the horary variations or small atmospheric 
tides, was no way interrupted. The mercury was precisely 
at the minimum of height at the moment of the earthquake ; 
it continued rising till eleven in the evening, and sank again 
till, half after four in the morning, conformably to the law 
which regulates barometrical variations. In the night be- 
tween the 3rd and 4th of November the reddish vapour 
uas so thick that I could not distinguish the situation of 
the moon, except by a beautiful halo of 20° diameter. 
Scarcely twenty-two months had elapsed since the town 
of Cumana had been almost totally destroyed by an earth- 
quake. The people regard vapours which obscure the 
horizon, and the subsidence of wind during the night, as ' 
infalliblo prognostics of disaster. We had frequent visits 
from persons who wished to know whether our instruments 
indicated new shocks for the next day ; and alarm was great 
and general when, on the 5th of November, exactly at the 
same hour as oil the preceding day, there was a' violent 
gust of wind, attended by thunder, and a few drops of rain . 
-ho shock was felt. The wind and storm returned during 
five or six days at the same hour, almost at the same minute. 
The inhabitants of Cumana, and of many other places be- 
tween tho tropics, have long since observed that atmosphe- 
rical changes, which are, to appearance, the most accidental, 
succeed each other for whole weeks with astonishing regu- 
larity. The same phenomenon occurs in summer, in tho 
temperate zone ; nor has it escaped the perception of astro- 
nomers, who often observe, in a serene sky, during three or 
four days successively, clouds which have collected at the 
same part of the firmament, take the same direction, and 
dissolve at the same height; sometimes before, sometimes 
