rricane, which occurred the same year and
month, the Annual Register, published at Jamaica, states, that at the
same time, "a smart shock of an earthquake was felt." The general
serenity of equatorial regions is due to the fact that they are beyond
the limit of the vortices, as in Peru, where neither rain nor lightning
nor storm is ever seen. Thunder and rain, without storms, however, are
common in other tropical countries, also out of the reach of the
vortices. But even in those parts, (as the Antilles,) lying in the track
of these vortices, the weather is not as _frequently_ disturbed as in
higher latitudes. The storms of the Antilles, when they do occur,
however, are fearful beyond any conception, showing the presence of some
cause, auxiliary to the ordinary disturbing action of the vortices,
which, when simultaneously occurring, adds tremendously to their force.

That earthquakes are preceded _sometimes_ by a peculiar haziness and
oppressiveness, similar to that which sometimes precedes a storm, is a
current opinion in volcanic countries. And Humboldt, who doubts the
connection, has to confess that sudden changes of weather have
_succeeded_ violent earthquakes, and that "during the great earthquake
of Cumana, he found the inclination of the needle was diminished 48'."
He also mentions the simultaneous occurrence of shocks, from
earthquakes, and a clap of thunder, and the agitation of the
electrometer during the earthquake, which lasted from the 2d of April to
the 17th of May, 1808; but concluding that "these indications presented
by clouds, by modifications of atmospheric electricity, or by calms,
cannot be regarded as _generally_ or _necessarily_ connected with
earthquakes, since in Peru, Canada, and Italy, earthquakes are observed,
along with the purest and clearest skies, and with the freshest land and
sea breezes. But if no meteorological phenomena indicates the coming
earthquake, either on the morning of the shock or a few days previously,
the influence of certain periods of the year, (the vernal and autumnal
equinoxes,) the commencement of the rainy season in the tropics, after
long drought, cannot be overlooked, even though the genetic connection
of meteorological processes, with those going on in the interior of our
globe, is still enveloped in obscurity."[34]

It is at the equinoxes that the earth changes her distances from the sun
most rapidly, and whether she is passing from her perihelion or from
her ap