736 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ties falls upon towns and the neighborhoods of mountains. This is to 

 be accounted for on the electric theory, from these places offering 

 points for the escape of the fluid which naturally flies there to seek a 

 thoroughfare, so to sjieak. From this cause we have St. Elmo's fire 

 on the masts and yards of ships at sea, and De Saussure's experiences 

 of the escape of the fluid from an Alpine peak. Hence we may infer 

 that towns and mountains create centres of force in these convulsions. 



At Munster, in Germany, an earthquake began on December 8, 

 1612, and lasted for several days. During the shocks, Billenelt Cas- 

 tle, near Munster, built on a rock, " sunk more than the depth of two 

 men's height," a breach being made in the rock itself. The destruc- 

 tion by earthquake and lightning seems to have been great. " If 

 any," says a chronicler of the catastrophe, " have so much heart left 

 as to lift up his hands to heaven, he is presently struck down by 

 thunder and lightning; " "fiery clouds and a direful comet" alarmed 

 the superstitious. The state of the atmosphere must have been very 

 peculiar, even allowing for exaggeration, since the writer referred to 

 states that the appearance of the stars was " changed into prodigious, 

 dreadful, fiery meteors." During this calamity, earthquake, thunder, 

 and lightning, occurred twice every day, but not at the same time. 



The earthquake of 1638 disturbed both Etna and Stromboli, caus- 

 ing them to send forth flame and smoke, as though the sources of the 

 convulsion descended deeper than their roots. Father Kircher de- 

 scribes the disaj^pearance of the city of Eujjhemia, which he was en- 

 deavoring to reach at this time, and was in sight of. After a violent 

 shock, on rising from the ground and looking toward the city, he saw 

 only a frightful dark cloud, which surprised him and his companions, 

 as the sky was otherwise very serene. Waiting until the cloud had 

 passed away, they found Euphemia had totally disappeared, and its 

 place a putrid lake. 



The earthquakes of 1692, in Jamaica, and 1693, in Sicily, present 

 very strong evidences of general electric disturbance in the globe at 

 those times. One evening in February, 1692, at Alari, in Sicily, the 

 village seemed to the country-people to be in flames. The fire, as they 

 imagined, began by little and increased for about a quarter of an hour, 

 when all the houses in the place appeared to be enveloped in one flame 

 which lasted about six minutes and then began to decay, as from 

 want of more fuel. Many who ran to render assistance observed this 

 increase as they passed along the road, but on entering the village 

 found all to be a delusion. Such appearances of fire and light occur 

 in other localities subject to earthquake, e. g., at Cowrie, Perthshire, 

 one morning before daybreak, in 1842, the light is stated to have been 

 so brilliant that birds were distinguished on the trees. Again, in 

 Sicily, about the 15tli of May, following the incident at Alari, two 

 hours before sunset, the atmosphere being very clear, the heavens ap- 

 peared on a sudden all on fire, without any flashes of lightning or the 



