At an average, forty-five shocks may be counted on in the
year. Most of them occur in the later part of October, in November,
December, January, May, and June. Experience gives reason to expect the
visitation of two desolating earthquakes in a century. The period between
the two is from forty to sixty years. The most considerable catastrophes
experienced in Lima since Europeans have visited the west coast of South
America happened in the years 1586, 1630, 1687, 1713, 1746, 1806. There is
reason to fear that in the course of a few years this city may be the prey
of another such visitation."] --Tr.
Long habit, and the very
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prevalent opinion that dangerous shocks are only to be apprehended two or
three times in the course of a century, cause faint oscillations of the soil
to be regarded in Lima with scarcely more attention than a hail storm in the
temperate zone.
Having thus taken a general view of the activity -- the inner life, as it
were -- of the Earth, in respect to its internal heat, its electro-magnetic
tension, its emanation of light at the poles, and its irregularly-recurring
phenomena of motion, we will now proceed to the consideration of the
material products, the chemical changes in the earth's surface, and the
composition of the atmosphere, which are all dependent on planetary vital
activity.
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