*
[footnote] * 'Philos. Transaci.', vol. xlix. p. 414.
At the destruction of Riobamba, in the year 1797, when the shocks were not
attended by any outbreak of the neighboring volcano, a singular mass called
the 'Moya' was uplifted from the earth in numerous continuous conical
elevations, the whole being composed of carbon, crystals of augite, and the
silicious shields of infusoria. The eruption of carbonic acid gas from
fissures in the Valley of the Magdalene, during the earthquake of New
Granada, on the 16th of November, 1827, suffocated many snakes, rats, and
other animals. Sudden changes of weather, as the occurrence of the rainy
season in the tropics, at an unusual period of the year, have sometimes
succeeded violent earthquakes in Quito and Peru. Do gaseous fluids rise
from the interior of the earth, and mix with the atmosphere? or are these
meteorological processes the action of atmospheric electricity disturbed by
the earthquake? In the tropical regions of America, where sometimes not a
drop of rain falls for ten months together, the natives consider the
repeated shocks of earthquakes, which do not endanger the low reed huts, as
auspicious harbingers of fruitfulness and abundant rain.
p 214
The intimate connection of the phenomena which we have considered is still
hidden in obscurity.
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