ABOUT VOLCANOS AND EARTHQUAKES. 4! 



30,000 persons were destroyed. At Riobamba, how- 

 ever, after the earthquake, a great number of corpses 

 were found to have been tossed across a river, and 

 scattered over the slope of a hill on the other side. 



(52.) The frequency of these South American earth- 

 quakes is not more extraordinary than the duration of 

 the shocks. Humboldt relates that on one occasion, 

 when travelling on mule-back with his companion 

 Bonpland, they were obliged to dismount in a dense 

 forest, and throw themselves on the ground : the earth 

 being shaken uninterruptedly for upwards of a quarter 

 of an hour with such violence that they could not keep 

 their legs. 



(53.) One of the most circumstantially described earth- 

 qua.kes on record is that which happened in Calabria 

 on the 5th of February 17S3 ; I should say began tlien, 

 for it may be said to have lasted four years. In the 

 year 1783, for instance, 949 shocks took place, of which 

 501 were great ones, and in 1784, 151 shocks were felt, 

 98 of which were violent. The centre of action seemed 

 to be under the towns of Monteleone and Oppido. In 

 a circle twenty-two miles in radius round Oppido every 

 town and village was destroyed within two minutes by 

 the first shock, and within one of seventy miles' radius 

 all were seriously shaken and much damage done. 

 The whole of Calabria was affected, and even across 

 the sea Messina was shaken, and a great part of 

 Sicily. 



(54.) There is no end of the capricious and out-of-the- 

 way accidents and movements recorded in this Calabrian 



