The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 1. köide

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Archibald Constable, 1819
Contains the proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Wernerian Natural History Society (Edinburgh), etc.

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Page 273 - ... resembling the rolling of thunder, but louder, and of longer continuance, than that heard within the tropics in time of storms. This noise preceded a perpendicular motion of three or four seconds, followed by an undulatory movement somewhat longer. The shocks were in opposite directions, from north to south, and from east to west. Nothing could resist the movement from beneath upward, and undulations crossing each other.
Page 276 - Apura, in a space of 1000 square leagues, were terrified on the 30th of April 1812, by a subterraneous noise, which resembled frequent discharges of the largest cannon. This noise began at two in the morning. It was accompanied by no shock ; and, what is very remarkable, it was as loud on the coast as at eighty leagues distance inland.
Page 273 - The air was calm, and the sky unclouded. It was Holy Thursday, and a great part of the population was . assembled in the churches. Nothing seemed to presage the calamities of the day. At seven : minutes after four in the afternoon the first shock was felt; it. was sufficiently powerful, to make the bells of the churches toll ; it lasted five or six seconds, during which time, the ground was.
Page 275 - ... up the springs that supplied them; and it became necessary, in order to have water, to go down to the river Guayra, which was considerably swelled ; and then vessels to convey the water were wanting. There remained a duty to be fulfilled toward the dead, enjoined at once by piety, and the dread of infection.
Page 191 - ... Branchier to Martigny, it continued its work of destruction till its fury became weakened by expanding itself over the great plain formed by the valley of the Rhone. After ravaging Le Bourg and the village of Martigny, it fell with comparative tranquillity into the Rhone, leaving behind it, on the...
Page 273 - ... diameter, left a mass of ruins scarcely exceeding five or six feet in elevation. The sinking of the ruins has been so considerable, that there BOW scarcely remain any vestiges of pillars or columns.
Page 275 - Commissaries were appointed to burn the bodies; and, for this purpose, funeral piles were erected between the heaps of ruins. This ceremony lasted several days. Amid so many public calamities, the people devoted themselves to those religious duties which they thought were the most fitted to appease the wrath of Heaven. Some, assembling in procession, sung funeral hymns ; others in a state of distraction, confessed themselves aloud in the streets. In this town was now repeated what had been remarked...
Page 152 - The pressure continuing to increase, it became doubtful whether the ship would be able to sustain it; every support threatened to give way, the beams in the hold began to bend, and the iron tanks settled together. At this critical moment, when it seemed impossible for...
Page 275 - Caracas was then repeated what had been remarked in the province of Quito, after the tremendous earthquake of 1797 ; a number of marriages were contracted between persons who had neglected for many years to sanction their union by the sacerdotal benediction. Children found parents, by whom they had never till then been acknowledged; restitutions were promised by persons who had never been accused of fraud; and families who had long been at enmity were drawn together by the tie of common calamity.

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