EARTHQUAKES AND THEIR CAUSES. 737 



least noise of thunder. This histccl, at Syracuse, about a quarter of 

 an hour, when there appeared in the air over the city two bows, the 

 colors extremely bright, after the usual manner, and a third with the 

 extremities inverted, and, as not a single cloud was visible in any part 

 of the sky, the abnormal state of the atmosphere is clear. It was also 

 during this summer that the unusually severe thunder-storm occurred 

 at Geneva that so materially aftected the future career of the cele- 

 brated Kobert Boyle. The earthquakes at Jamaica began on the 

 17th of June, and their greatest violence seems to have been spent in 

 the mountains. Terrific noises were heard among them at Port Royal 

 during the last shock, and they were so torn and rent as to present a 

 very shattered appearance and quite new forms. In this month Etna 

 emitted extraordinarily loud noises for three days together. A sin- 

 gular circumstance, during this catastrophe at Jamaica, was the de- 

 rangement of the wind. The land-breeze often failed, and the sea- 

 breeze blew all night, whereas the land-breeze should blow all night 

 and tlie sea-breeze all day. There was an earthquake on Sejjtember 

 8, 1692, in Europe, but I have not yet been able to find out the lo- 

 cality. 



Space will not admit of more than noticing some special phe- 

 nomena of the Sicilian earthquakes, 1693. On the 10th of January 

 the castle of Augusta was blown up by the lightning firing the powder- 

 magazine. At Minco, on the 11th, the shock was attended by " a 

 mighty storm of lightning, thunder, and hail, that lasted six hours." 

 The archbishop's palace at Monreal was set on fire by the lightning. 

 Etna emitted great noises, flames, and ashes, during the shocks that 

 overthrew Catania, but there does not appear to have been eruption. 

 Furla, situated among limestone-quarries, disaj^peared, and at several 

 parts of the hill the rocks, which were previously almost as white as 

 Geneva marble, had changed, and in the clefts made by the earthquake 

 had become of a burnt color, as if fire and powder had been employed 

 to rend them asunder. Millitello seems to have been destroyed be- 

 fore the 11th of January, for the country-people, who dwelt on the 

 neighboring ridge of mountains, affirmed that it was not to be seen on 

 the morning of that day, to which time, from twelve o'clock on the 8th, 

 it had been concealed in a thick fog. During the interval the moun- 

 tain that lay on the north side of the town had been split asunder 

 one portion overwhelming Millitello, so that not an inhabitant es- 

 caped. Francofonte, built chiefly of wood, escaped with little damage 

 from the shocks, but was fired by lightning ; the spire of the church 

 wood covered with lead burnt down, and the nunnery of the Car- 

 melites entirely destroyed so suddenly, that five of the nuns were sti- 

 fled in their beds. The largest part of the inhabitants of Luochela 

 escaped by flying from the town on the sudden disappearance of the 

 castle, situated on a rising ground. Ragusa experienced shocks on 

 the 8th, with violent thunder and lightning. At Specufurno, on the 10th,. 



VOL. VII.- 



