215 
EARTHQUAKE. 
fucceeded for a fhort fpace. At Grangemouth, and over 
all that neighbourhood, two fevere (hocks were felt, one 
at four, the other at fix, in the morning. At Crieff it 
refembled the hidden fall of a houfe, attended with a 
rumbling noife, which continued about the fpace of lix 
feconds. It appeared to go from weft to haft. One per- 
fon (fates that the roof over his head cracked, and ap¬ 
peared as if it would burft. The rattling of the dilhes 
on the (helves, and the loofe partitions, helped to in- 
creafe the fears of the people, who ran to the doors. In 
Stirlingfhire it was felt in the fame manner. There was 
not a breath of wind, and the fky, though fomewhat 
cloudy, was altogether calm. Soon after the morning 
became very bright and warm; nor was there any mift 
on Benlomond, Benledy, or any of the neighbouring 
mountains. The gable end of a barn, a few miles to 
the vveftward of Edinburgh, where Come (hearers were 
Beeping, fell in, and the unfortunate tenants were com¬ 
pletely buried in the rubbifh. Wbeiv the accident was 
difcovered, and tnefe poor people dug out, two women 
were found dead, and another very much bruiled. It 
was obferved at Leith, that the tides, for three days, 
ha'd not ebbed fo much as ufual at the then age of the 
moon ; fo much fo, that the workmen at the New Dock 
had not been able to accomplidi the work they ordina- 
rilydo while the tide is out. 
We have fome recent and awful accounts of the fa¬ 
tal effeCts of earthquakes in South America, communi¬ 
cated in a letter from Qmio, dated February 20, 1797; 
which (fates, “ that a 1110ft dreadful cataftrophe of this 
kind had been then juft experienced in the provinces of 
Taninga, Ambato, Riobamba, Alaofi, part of Chimbo, 
and OTuto. Not a houfe was left Handing: every thing 
was levelled with the ground. The volcano of Maas 
made a mod dreadful eruption, and fplit in two parts, 
which feparated front each other ; while the earthquake 
fliook the mountains with fuch violence, that they were 
dallied againft each other, and threw up fometimes ftones 
with clouds of dull, and fometimes ({reams of burning 
lava, or water. The mountain Ygualata in falling threw 
out a dream of lava which rolled along with fiery waves, 
and which in its courfe totally deftroyed Capalpi, San 
Andreas, Ouaono, Emlyies, Guanando, and feveral other 
places. The mountain Moya almoft diftblved into wa¬ 
ter, and fwept away Pelile and the celebrated plantation 
of St. Ildephonfo, where a thoufand perfons perifhed. 
The mountain Euero fell on the village of the lame 
name, without leaving a tingle vvitnefs of this melancholy 
event. The mountain Yatagui fell upon Maforo, and 
opened fuch a dreadful gulf, that every thing, houfes, 
churches, and inhabitants, all but two perfons, were 
fwallowed up by it. This place was converted into a 
bituminous lake, which emitted a fulphureous vapour. 
The ruins are every where fo great, that all the gold and 
filver of America will hardly be fufficient to repair the 
devaftation. The number of thofe who loft their lives 
cannot be afcertained ; but it muft have been very con- 
fiderable. The provinces of Riobamba, &c. fuffered 
mod; for in thefe many died of hunger, and even of 
third, as all the water wasTorrupled. 
Accounts alfo from Bencoolen, Taponooly, and Pa- 
dang, of the 5U1 and 7th of March 1797, give the follow¬ 
ing relation of an earthquake that happened on the weft 
coaft of Sumatra'on the 20th of February preceding: 
The vibratory (hocks of this earthquake are dated "to 
have continued for three minutes, and to have recurred 
at intervals, during a fpace of three hours, from its be¬ 
ginning, till the (hock had completely ceafed. At Pa¬ 
dang, the houfes of the inhabitants were almoft totally 
deftroyed, and the public works much damaged. The 
(now Padang, lying at anchor in the river, was thrown, 
by the fudden rife of the fea, upwards of three miles, in 
(hore. The number of lives loft at Padang exceeded 
three hundred. Of thele fome were crulhed under the 
ruins of falling houfes; fome were literally entombed 
alive by the earth clofing upon them, and others were 
drowned by the fudden irruption of the waters of the 
ocean. The effects of this awful convulfion of nature 
do not appear to have extended to the northward of Ta¬ 
ponooly ; as at that place little or no damage was fuf- 
taincd. It appears to have come from the fouthward, 
and is fuppofed to have extended as far as Bencoolen. 
At Natal, very confiderable damage was fullained, and 
feveral honles throw'n down, but no lives were loft. 
Another account from Metz dates, that at fix in the 
morning of the 24th of March 1797, a (hock of an earth¬ 
quake had bedft felt at Sarreguemir.es, Blifcatel, and 
other communes of the department of la Meurthe. No 
precife obfervations were made on its direction. It was 
fo violent at Bitche, that it railed up part of the arch of 
the bridge, fo as to render it dangerous to be paffed. A 
faCt which feems to explain this phenomenon is, that the 
circumference where it took place contains feveral mines 
of naphtha. One of thefe burns continually, like the 
foifaterra at Naples. Some days before, a flaming meteor 
role from the earth, between Fey and Veron, three leagues 
to the fouth of Metz. Its difappearance was followed 
by a detonation which (hook the atmofphere to a con¬ 
fiderable diftance around. 
To explain the phenomena of earthquakes, various 
hypothefes have been fuggefted both by ancient and 
modern philofophers. Anaxagoras fuppofed the caufe 
of earthquakes to be fubterraneous clouds burfting out 
into lightning, which (hook the vaults that confined 
.them. Others imagined, that the arches, which had 
been weakened by continual fubterraneous fires, at length 
fell in. Others derived thefe accidents from the rarefied 
(team of waters, heated by contiguous fires; and fome, 
among whom was Epicurus, and leveral of the Peripate¬ 
tic fchool, afcribed tnefe terrible convulfions to the ig¬ 
nition of certain inflammable exhalations. This laft hy- 
pothefis has been adopted by many of the mod cele¬ 
brated writers; as, Gaffendus, Kircher, Schottus, Vare- 
nius, Des Cartes, Du Hamel, Honorius, Fabri, &c. They 
fuppofe that there are many and vaft cavities under 
ground which have a communication with one another : 
fome of which abound with waters ; others with vapours 
and exhalations, ariling from inflammable fubftances, as 
nitre, bitumen, fulpluir, &c. Thefe combuftible exha¬ 
lations they imagine to be kindled by a fubterraneous 
(park, or by fome aCtive flame gliding through a narrow 
fiffure from without, or by the fermentation of fome mix¬ 
ture ; and, when this happens, they muft neceffarily pro¬ 
duce explofions, tremors, and ruptures at the furface, 
according to the number and diverfity of the cavities, 
and the quantity nrfd activity of the inflammable matter. 
This hypothefis is illuftrated by a variety of experiments, 
fuch as mixtures of iron-filings and brimftone buried in 
the earth, gunpowder confined in pits, &c. by all which 
a (flaking of the earth will be produced. 
Though none of thefe hypothefes were thought fuffi¬ 
cient for explaining the phenomena of earthquakes in a 
fatisfactory manner, one or other of them continued to 
be adopted by almoft ail philofophers till the year 1749. 
In the month of March in that year, an earthquake was 
felt at London, and feveral other places in England. 
Dr. Stukeley, who had been much engaged in eleCtrical 
experiments, began to fufpect that'phenomena of this 
kind ought to be attributed, not to vapours or fermen¬ 
tations generated in the bowels of the earth, but to elec 
tricity. In a paper publifhed by him on this fubjecr, 
he therefore rejects all the above-mentioned hypothefes, 
and finally concludes, that an earthquake is no other 
than a (hock of the fame kind as thofe which commonly 
occur in electrical experiments. As to the manner in 
which the earth and atmofphere are put into fuch a date, 
which prepares them to receive an electrical (hock, and 
whence the eleCtric matter comes, the doCtor does not 
pretend to determine ; but thinks it as difficult to be ac¬ 
counted for as magnetifm, gravitation, and other limilar 
fecrets of nature. The fame hypothefis was advanced at 
nearly the fame time by fignor Beccnria, without know- 
inn* 
A *2) 
