Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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But Observations Prove, That This
Augmentation Does Not Take Place.
I must further observe, that M.
Bonpland and I, going from Guayaquil to the coast of Mexico,
crossed latitudes in the Pacific, where the crew of our ship were
dismayed by a hollow sound coming from the depth of the ocean, and
transmitted by the waters.
At that time a new eruption of Cotopaxi
took place, but we were as far distant from the volcano, as Etna
from the city of Naples. The little town of Honda, on the banks of
the Magdalena, is not less than one hundred and forty-five leagues*
(* This is the distance from Vesuvius to Mont Blanc.) from
Cotopaxi; and yet, in the great explosions of this volcano, in
1744, a subterranean noise was heard at Honda, and supposed to be
discharges of heavy artillery. The monks of San Francisco spread a
report that the town of Carthagena was besieged and bombarded by
the English; and the intelligence was believed throughout the
country. Now the volcano of Cotopaxi is a cone, more than one
thousand eight hundred toises above the basin of Honda, and it
rises from a table-land, the elevation of which is more than one
thousand five hundred toises above the valley of the Magdalena. In
all the colossal mountains of Quito, of the province of los Pastos,
and of Popayan, crevices and valleys without number intervene. It
cannot be admitted, under these circumstances, that the noise was
transmitted through the air, or over the surface of the globe, and
that it came from the point at which the cone and crater of
Cotapaxi are situated.
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