Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/450

394 relate, that Anaximander and Pherecydes possessed the art of prognosticating earthquakes; and Don Juan de Barrenechea, professor ad interim of mathematics in the university of St. Mark, endeavoured to reduce to a computation, by the means of his astronomical clock, this celestial virtue. He did not, however, on this occasion, lay any stress on those prophecies, or astrological dreams, the evidences of the small advancement of kingdoms in the true sciences, that refer to remote times; but on the knowledge of the changes of the atmosphere, and of the superficies of the earth, which precede its convulsions. The direction of the latter, which is, generally speaking, the same with that of the chains of mountains, ought likewise to be examined, on account of the advantages it presents. The deep excavations made by the Persians from mount Taurus to the mountains Caucasus and Ararat, to facilitate the transpiration of the inflammable substances, freed those regions from the earthquakes which had been frequently observed to follow the direction of the above-mentioned mountains.

On the 8th of February, 1791, at seven in the evening, an earthquake was felt in Lima, with two pretty strong shocks, having an interval of a minute between them. It made a loud report; and its direction was S. E. N. W., nearly the same with that followed by all the earthquakes which have made such dreadful devastations in the capital.

On the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th, the river overflowed its banks. This arose from a copious fall of rain which extended for the space of sixty or seventy leagues, beginning at the first elevated land which presents itself in front of Chincha, and following the direction of the mountains, which is parallel to the coast as far as the lofty ground in front of vilca