The Venezuelan Trouble.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11814, 7 January 1903, Page 2

The Venezuelan Trouble.

CARACAS

THE CAPITAL OF VENEZUELA

A coiYespondent supplies u.s with the following interesting note on Caracas, the city which irf now. occupying a la.rge shaie of public attention: — Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, is called the city of earthquakes, causing an average .yearly damage amounting to the -equivalent of a per capita tax of four dollars. 80 subject is the city to eaitbquakes that every house has jts-laga securo. or safe side, where the inhabitants place their fragile property. This lagasecuro is the north side, and <it_was'chosen because about two out of three destructive shocks traversed tho city from west to east., so Uiat tbo walls on the«e sides of a building have been stricken broadside on. Projecting pasement corners (giving the houss a slightly pyi'a-iniclal appearance) have been found jjoltir than absolutely perpendicular Avails; moitised corner-stones and roof beams have saved many lives, .when the central nulls have been split, from top to bottom.- There «ie not many isolated buildings in the citr. In many streets broad iron girders, rivet!eel to the Vail about a foot above the housedoor, run from house to house along the front of an entire square. The roofs arc ilat. or ilat-tenactd ; the chipue'--flues terminate near tlie caves in a perforated lid. When the inhabitants: of Venezuela iiv-A s;mv tlio Spaniaidsi building tall houses they told them they were building their own sepulchres. The .city of Caracas was1" destroyed by tremendous earthquakes, and Humboldti- says -'-'The place^-where I once -visited ami described ha»s disappeared, *nd on the same spot, on.the. around figured in various directions, another;, eitv is slowly rising. The' heaps of ruins which were the grave of a numerous population are becoming anew the habitation of men." The shock felt at Caracas in the month of December, 1811. was the only one which preceded'the terrible catastrophe of March 26, 1812. A great'drought prevailed at this period in tho province, of Venezuela. Not a sii'gle drop of rain had fallen, at Caracal, or in t,he country to the distance of 90 leagues round, dining live months preceding the destruction of the capital. The 26th of March was a lennrkubly hot clay; the air was'calm and the sky unclouded. It was Ascension Day, and a gra.'t poition of the population was assembled in the churches. Nothing seemed to presage the calamities of the day. At •."■even minutes after 4 in.the afternoon the first shock was felt. It was sufficiently forcible to make the bells "hi the churches toll, and lasted five or six seconds. During thai interval the ground was hi a continual undulating movement, and .seemed to heave up like a, boiling liquid. The danger ivas thought to depart, -when a. tremendous subterranean noise was heard, resembling the rolling of thunder, but louder and of longer continuance than thati heard within the tropics in the time of storms. This noise preceded a, perpendicular motion of three or four seconds, followed by an unrlulatiii^ movement somewhat longer. Nothing could resist the perpendicular and the transverse undulations. The shocks were in opposite directions, proceeding from east, to west.' and from north to south. Tha citiv of Caracas was entirely overthrown, and between-9000 and 10,000 of the inhabitants Mere buried under the ruins of tlie houses and churches. The crowd Avas s-o great within the churches that 4000 persona were crushed by the fall of the roofs. At Caracas, -which is nearly 2900 ft. above

sea, level, the mean annual temperature is

- only 67deg., exceeding that of London by _^^Jj^»?.than 17deg. The atmosphere is cooled SBsgPßSf^r the descending currents* of air, and b.y. tbe mists Avhich envelop the lofty summit of the Silla during a great part of the year. The thermometer at night at Caracas often descends to 12deg. The height of Caracas i:- but a third of that of Mexico, Quito, and Santa. Fcde Bogoter; yet of all the capitals of Spanish .America Avhich enjo-e a cool and delicious climate in the midst of the torrid zone, Caracas is nearest to the coast.

What a, privilege for- a .city to possess a « seaport at 10 miles' distance,, and to be situated among mountains, on a table-land Avhich Avould produce Avheat if the cultivation of the coffee-tree Avere not preferred!