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Curiosities Respecting Earthquakes

Earthquakes, Nature's agonizing pangs,.

Oft shake the astonish'd isles; the Solfaterre Or sends forth thick, blue, suffocating steams, Or shoots to temporary flames. A din, Wild, thro' the mountain's quivering rocky caves, Like the dread crash of tumbling planets, roars.

When tremble thus the pillars of the globe, Like the tall cocoa by the fierce north blown, Can the poor brittle tenements of man Withstand the dread convulsion? Their dear homos, Which shaking, tottering, crashing, bursting, fall, The boldest fly; and, on the open plain Appall'd in agony, the moment wait, When, with disrupture vast, the waving earth Shall whelm them in her sea-disgorging womb.

Nor less affrighted are the bestial kind:

The bold steed quivers in each panting vein, And staggers, bath'd in deluges of sweat:

The lowing herds forsake their grassy food, And send forth frighted, woful, hollow sounds:

The dog, thy trusty centinel of night, Deserts the post assign'd, and piteous howls.

Wide ocean feels- The mountain waves, passing their custom'd bounds, Make direful loud incursions on the land, All overwhelming: sudden they retreat, With their whole troubled waters; but anon Sudden return, with louder, mightier force; The black rocks whiten, the vext shores resound; And yet, more rapid, distant they retire.

Vast corruscations lighten all the sky With volum'd flames, while thunder's awful voice, From forth his shrine by night and horror girt, Astounds the guilty, and appals the good Grainger.

EARTHQUAKES AND THEIR CAUSES. - From A. de Humboldt's Personal Narrative of Travels, translated by Helen Maria Williams. "It is a very old and commonly received opinion at Cumena, Acapulca, and Lima, that a perceptible connection exists