When I made the plan of the ruined town of Riobamba,
one particular spot was pointed out to me, where all the furniture of one
house had been found under the ruins of another. The loose earth had
evidently moved like a fluid in currents, which must be assumed to have been
directed first downward, then horizontally, and lastly upward. It was found
necessary to appeal to the 'Audiencia', or Council of Justice, to decide
upon the contentions that arose regarding the proprietorship of objects that
had been removed to a distance of many hundred roises.
In countries where earthquakes are comparatively of much less frequent
occurrence (as for instance, in Southern Europe), a very general belief
prevails, although unsupported by the authority of inductive reasoning,*
that a calm, an oppressive
p 207
heat and a misty horizon, are always the forerunners of this phenomenon.
[footnote] *Even in Italy they have begun to observe that earthquakes are
unconnected with the state of the weather, that is to say, with the
appearance of the heavens immediately before the shock. The numerical
results of Friedrich Hoffmann ('Hinterlassene Werke', bd. ii., 366-376)
exactly correspond with the experience of the Abbate Scina of Palermo. I
have myself several times observed reddish clouds on the day of an
earthquake, and shortly before it on the 4th of November, 1799, I
experienced two sharp shocks at the moment of a loud clap of thunder.
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