EARTHQUAKES. 
75 
“fiidence. If the shocks be repeated, if they become frequent 
‘‘ during several successive days, the uncertainty quickly disap- 
“ pears. I did not at this time imagine that after a long abode in 
“ the table lands of Quito, and the coasts of Peru, I should become 
“almost as familiar with the abrupt movements of the ground, 
“ as we are in Europe with the noise of thunder. We did not 
“ think of rising at night in the city of Quito, when subterraneous 
“ rumblings, (bramidos) which seem always to come from the vol- 
“cano of Pichincha, announced (two, three and sometimes seven 
“or eight minutes beforehand) a shock. The carelessness of the 
“ inhabitants who recollect that for three centuries past their city 
“ has not been overwhelmed, communicates itself easily to the 
least intrepid traveller.” 
The immediate forerunner of an earthquake is a loud, harsh, sub¬ 
terranean noise, resembling sometimes that which would be pro¬ 
duced by a large number of waggons driven furiously along a 
rugged pavement, and at other times the explosion of cannon. 
This is succeeded by that shaking or trembling of the earth, from 
which the phenomenon derives its name, and by which buildings 
are overthrown, burying too often the wretched inhabitants in 
their ruins. Very frequently, however, the noise and shock are 
simultaneous; and when this is not the case, the interval varies very 
much, from a few seconds to a few minutes. The agitation does 
not often last longer than a minute, but is sometimes repeated in 
very quick succession. The motion is not a gradual uplifting, 
but vibratory, and so rapid that it is dificult for a person who is 
standing, to keep his feet. The shock that agitated the city of 
Cumana, when Humboldt was there, was but a slight one, that 
did no mischief, yet he tells us that he felt it very strongly, 
though lying in a hammock, and that his companion, M. Bonp- 
land, who was bending over a table examining plants, was almost 
thrown upon the floor. An Englishman who was in Lisbon 
when that city was nearly destroyed by an earthquake on the 1st 
of November, 1755, relates, that after the first shock he joined a 
mixed multitude of persons, who had fled to the area in front of 
one of the churches, and were on their knees imploring the pro¬ 
tection of heaven; and that when the second shock came on, it 
was with difficulty that he could keep upon his knees. 
A quay which had just been built on the bank of the Tagus, of 
rough marble, at a great expence, was swallowed up with the 
people who had collected upon it as a place of safety, and a great 
number of boats and small vessels that lay near it, not a vestige 
of any of which was ever seen afterwards. The water was as¬ 
certained to be an hundred fathoms in depth, in the place where 
it stood. The sea was not less affected than the land. Ships 
that were sailing on the main ocean off the coast of Portugal, re¬ 
ceived a shock as though they had struck upon a sand bank or 
rock. The water retired from the shore, leaving it bare to a con¬ 
siderable distance, and then returning in a wave from twenty to 
