On the Earthquakes in Sicily in March 1823. 93 



Mary's college, the monastery, the parish church, and a few 

 peasants' cottages, were all that suffered. At Plana, the bat- 

 tlements of the tower were thrown down. But more of its 

 power was felt in places on the sea -coast, as appears from its 

 effects at Capaci, four miles distant, where the cathedral and 

 several houses wei-e ruined ; and at Torretta, fourteen miles off, 

 where the cathedral, two storehouses and some dwelling- 

 houses were destroyed. Beyond, its power continued to di- 

 mmish ; and at Castellamare, twenty-four miles off, the state- 

 houseonly had the cleft, which was made in 1819, enlarged. 



In maritime places east of Palermo the shock was immense. 

 At Altavilla, fourteen miles from Palermo, the bridge was 

 shaken. At Trabia, twenty-one miles, the castle, and at 

 Godiano, the cathedral and some houses, were destroyed, — 

 enormous masses from Bisambra, a neighbouring hill, were 

 loosened, and fell. At Termini, twenty-four miles, the shocks 

 were very violent, exceeding all that had happened within the 

 memory of its inhabitants. Those of 1818-19 werevei-y strong, 

 but the city received at those times no injury; now, the con- 

 vent of Si. Antonio, Mary's college, and various private houses 

 felt its effects. 



The warm waters, as well those of the baths as those from 

 the neighbouring wells, which proceed from the same subter- 

 ranean source in the mountains along the coast of Termini, 

 increased in quantity and warmth, and became turbid ; con- 

 sequences that always succeed convulsions of the earth, by 

 which their internal streams are disordered. The clay tinged 

 the fluid with its own colour, and equal volumes of the water 

 yielded a greater (quantity of the clay than before, when the 

 colour was deeper*. Most of the houses in the little new town 

 of Sarcari, two miles from the shore, and consisting of less 

 than a hundred houses, were rendered iminhabitable ; the 

 walls were thrown down, and the more lofty buildings were 

 all damaged. The effects of the earthquake are found to be 

 greater in proportion to its advance eastward. 



Forty-eight miles from Palermo, at Cefalu, a large city on 

 the shore of a promontory, the effects were various and inju- 

 rious. Without the walls, two convents, a storehouse, and 

 some country-houses, were injured, but no lives were lost. 

 The sea macfe a violent and sudden rush to the shore, carry- 

 ing with it a large ship laden with oil; and when the wave re- 



* The warm and mineral waters of St. Euphcmia, in Calabria, which 

 sprang up after the menioralile earthquakes in 10:?8, presented the same 

 pna.Miunicna in those of 17H-3. — Gnmnldi Dcsrr. cki Trent, del 1783. 



[See also the remarks on volcanic pha-noniena in M. de Humboldt's 

 pa[)cr on the Uio Vinagrc in our present number. — Edit.] 



tired 



