OCR Text |
Show 4.42 EARTHQUAKE tN PERU, A.D. 1746, appeared to me a convincin?' proof of the universality of the deluge, althc;mgh I am not Ignorant that some have attributed their position to other causes; but an unanswerable confutation of their subterfuge is, that the various sorts of shells which compose these strata, both in the plains and mountains are the v~ry .same with tho~e ~m~nd ~n the b.ay * .. " Perhaps the d1luv1an theory of th1s d1stmgu1shed navigator, the companion of Condamine, may account for his never having recorded even reports of changes in the relative level of land and sea on the shores of South America. lie could not, however, have given us a relation of the rise of the reef above alluded to, for the destruction of Penco happened a few years after the publication of his Voyages. If we duly consider these facts so recently brought to light, as well as the elevation before mentioned of the coast at Valparaiso in 18~~' we shall be less sceptical than Raspe, in regard to an event for which Hooke had cited Purchas's Travels. In that passage it was stated "that a certain sea-coast in a province of South America called Chili, was, during a violent earthquake, propelled upwards with such force and velocity, that some ships on the sea were grounded in it, and the sea receded to a distance." Raspe, being himself of opinion that aU the continents had been upraised gradually by earthquakes from the sea, admitted that the circumstance was not impossible, but he complains that Purchas had interpolated the account of the earthquake (which happened probably at the close of the seventeenth century) into Da Costa's History of the West Indies -j-. Peru, 1746.-Peru was visited on the ~8th of October, 1746, by an earthquake, which is declared to have been more tremendous and extensive than even that of Lisbon in 1755. In the first twenty-four hours, two hundred shocks were experienced. The ocean twice retired and returned impetuously upon the land: Lima was destroyed, and part of the coast near Callao was converted into a bay; four other harbours, among which were Cavalla and Guanape, shared the same fate. There were twenty-three ships and vessels great and small in the "' Ulloa's Voyage to South America, vol. ii., Book 8, chap. 6. t De Novis Insulis, p. 120. 1753, EARTIIQU.t\ 'KES J.N T\AM:1'SCUATKA, MARTINf.QtJE, ETC. 443 harbour of Callao of whi ·h . .~1 our, among which' was a fc · mneteen ..,¥ ere sun k , and the other by the force of the waves r~gatc called St. Fermin, were carried The number of the inha.l>I'to a ~rcat distance up the country thousand. Two hundred ants m this 't · 1 Cl Y amounted to four were saved on a small f· on y escaped, twenty-two of whom which remained as. the on 1 Iaygment ~f the fort of Vera Cruz memonal f tl · ' after this dreadful inundation ° Ie Site of the town A volcano in Lucanas bur;t £ ·th h . quantities of water descended fr~~ ;h; same mght, and such country was overflowed. and · th cone, that the whole 1 ' In e mountain p cal ed Conversiones de Caxamar uilla th near atao, burst out, and frightful torrents q f ' ree other volcanos sides *. 0 water swept down their Kamtschatka, 1737.-The eastern side o . Kamtschatka, at Awatchka bay , 1 k f the pemnsula of on October the 6th 1737 cl;h vas s la en ~y an earthquake ' · e sea was v 1 tl . and overflowed the land to an imme 1 . 1 10 en Y agitated, d ~ nse lei<,. lt and th . tl rew so "ar as to Jay bare its bottom b o ' :n WI 1~ second of the Kurile Isles Th l etwfeen the first and 1 . e s lape o the gr d great y changed. Several plains were l'f d oun was hills, and on the other hand man bu~dl te and formed · 1 Y su s1 ences 0 · d m and lakes and new bays on the coast -r. ccasJOne Martinique, 17~7.-In the year 17G)7 } .11 Ma rti·m ·q ue durm· g an earthquake!· N ' a u sunk do wn m· Iceland, 17~5.-In Iceland durin th . cano Leirhnukur, in 17~5-6, a tractgof ~i e~luk~~n of the voland formed a lake and half a mi'l f· hg sunk down, . ' e I om t e same pi h ·n rose m a lake and converted it into dry land §. ace a l Tenerijfe, 1706.-May 5th 1706 1 . T . ffi k ' , a nteral eruptiOn f eneri e too place south of the harbour of G h' h' o was overwhelmed with lava Man . d'arac ICo, w JCh · Y sprmgs Isappeared, and "' Ulloa's Voyage, vol. ii., Book 7 chap 7 t Kracheninikon by Chappe d'Auter~che . S37 t Geog. of America, Schlozer Part II ' P5· 54 · ~ D d ' ., P· · ureau e la Malle, Geog., de laMer Noire, p. 203. |