Thus clefts are opened or closed in the interior of the earth, by which
waves of sound penetrate to us or are impeded in their propagation.
The activity of an igneous mountain, however terrific and picturesque the
spectacle may be which it presents to our contemplation, is always limited
to a very small space. It is far otherwise with earthquakes, which although
scarcely perceptible to the eye, nevertheless simultaneously propagate their
waves to a distance of many thousand miles. The great earthquake which
destroyed the city of Lisbon on the 1st of November, 1755, and whose effects
were so admirably investigated by the distinguished philosopher Emmanuel
Kant, was felt in the Alps, on the coast of Sweden, in the Antilles,
Antigua, Barbadoes, and Martinique; in the great Canadian Lakes, in
Thuringia, in the flat country of Northern Germany, and in the small inland
lakes on the shores of the Baltic.*
[footnote] *[It has been computed that the shock of this earthquake
pervaded an area of 700,000 miles, or the twelfth part of the circumference
of the globe. This dreadful shock lasted only five minutes: it happened
about nine o'clock in the morning of the Feast of all Saints, whien almost
the whole population was within the churches, owing to which circumstance no
less than 30,000 persons perished by the fall of these edifices.
Pages:
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443