218 Earthquakes in Sicily. 
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 un- 
inhabitable ; the walls were thrown down, and the more 
lofty buildings were all damaged. The effects of the earth- 
quake 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 made a violent and sudden rush to the shore, carry- 
ing with it-a large ship laden with oil; and when the wave 
retired, she was left quite dry ; but a second wave returned 
with such immense force, that the ship was dashed in pieces, 
and the oil lost. Boats, which were approaching the shore, 
were borne rapidly forward to the land, but at the return of 
the water, they were carried as rapidly back, far beyond 
their first situation. The same motion of the sea, but less 
violent, was observed all along the shore, as far even as Pa- 
Jerr Pollina, a town with nine hundred inhabitants, occu- 
pying an elevated position ata little distance from the sea, 
was injured in almost every building ; particularly in the 
church of St. Peter and Nunciata, in the castle, the tower, 
and in other places. Nor did Finale, a little nearer the 
shore, suffer Jess ; five of its houses fell in consequence, on 
the eleventh of March. 
Beyond the towns which have been mentioned, towards 
the interior of the island, the shock was vigorous to a cer- 
tain extent; but kept decreasing as it proceeded, throughout 
the whole surface. At Ciminna, south of ‘Termini, a statue 
was shaken from its place on the top of a belfrey in front of 
the great church, and a part of the clock tower falling, killed — 
ene person, and badly wounded another. In Cerda, the 
shock affected the great church, some houses, and half of 
Kae 2 
*The warm and mineral waters of St. Euphemia, in Calabria, which 
sprung up after the memorable earthquakes in 1638, presented the same 
phenomena in those of 1783. Grimaldi descr. dei trem. del. 1783. 
