-johich QcciDied in Sicih/ in March 182,S. 177 



tween the earth and the atmosphere, were it possible for it to 

 collect in the midst of so many conducting bodies, which seem 

 designed to restore the equilibrium instantly ; — between this 

 motion, and the deep heavy earthquake, armed with such 

 terrible power, which agitates so violently a great extent of 

 the globe, which sometimes seems ready to tear it from its 

 very foundation, and which has all the characters of an effect 

 sprung from most wonderful degrees of force, which, placed 

 deep in the earth, moves and convulses those great masses 

 Ij'ing between it and the surface. 



The idea of forces and effects like these fills with fear the 

 miserable mortal who creeps upon the face of the earth, and 

 brings his pride down to the dust. When he sees the earth 

 reel, and the great fabrics which he has raised with so much 

 confidence rushing to ruin, he despairs of finding any where 

 one firm support to his frail existence. 



The chinks and fissures formed in many places, and to which 

 the vulgar attribute much importance, ai'e in consequence of 

 the quaking of the soil, and to which the softness of the earth 

 and the loss of its internal support have given place. The 

 country of Bosco about Ogliastro, of which I have already 

 spoken, became furrowed with divers long, tortuous, deep 

 clefts, the sides of which in some places sank down ; in other 

 places, portions of the surface passed down over inclined plains 

 below them, and took new positions ; the olive-trees, which 

 some of these carried with them, were much injured by the 

 breaking and displacing of their roots. This land is formed 

 of an immense deposit of argillaceous chalk, more than a hun- 

 dred feet deep. The water which penetrated it (and the \\\n- 

 ter there was very rainy) loosened away the earth, and carried 

 a great part of it into the internal cavities below ; the surface 

 thus wanting solid support, under the shock of the earthquake 

 became filled with depressions, caverns, and inequalities. The 

 same may be said of a great aperture made in the vicinity of 

 Colesano, which dilating itself day after day threatened to 

 render those places inaccessible. Copious showers alone pro- 

 duce such effects in the chalky land of many parts of Sicily. 

 This want of firm bases frequently causes the overthrow of 

 great rocks at the time of earthcjuakes. Well do we remem- 

 ber, that in the earllu|uakc of the ."jth of February 1783, a 

 mountain a mile to the south of Scilla, and which was a n)ile 

 and a half in length, fell over into the sea of Calabria and 

 formed two new promontories. 



Phcoiomcna nhscnvd in the Eolian Sea. 



If all these facts induce us to locate in Eolia the causes of 

 VoL 65. No. 323. MarcA 1825. Z the 



