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Earthquakes in Sicily. a2 
tainds of the people, who are ge seeking in the heavens 
for signs of future events. But it prepared a tempestuous 
night, which illoned. with torrents of rain, with thunder, 
now, hail, an uf 
On the on of the Gth, at forty-five minutes past one, in 
St. Lucia de Millazzo, six ‘miles from the shore which looks 
towards Vulcano and Stromboli, a severe shock was felt, 
and afterwards, at various intervals, horrible noises were 
heard, four distinct times, rumbling fearfully beneath them; 
and finally, at half past three o’clock, the shock was re- 
peated. Both were felt at Messina, but without any subter- 
ranean noises. Nothing of it was felt at Palermo, or in any 
places in the west. At fifty-six minutes past ten, in the 
night of the 7th, another shock was felt at Palermo, sufti- 
* In all times signs have been mentioned as announcing earthquakes 
near at hand. People read them in the air and upon the earth; 
some philosophers even have given them credence. The frequent oc- 
currence of these signs, without the expected a onaycs & isa ‘sation t 
argument against them. But less uncertain are those which accompany 
phenomena, as rain and thunder. To that of 1693 such fearful 
t 
roaring of the torrents of rain and the tremendous thunders. The same 
circumstances took place at Calabria in 1783; and were witnesse 
of the same on the night of the 5th of March. An extraordinary me 
tity of sedinis fluid is eouelepeds and being sleac from the ner 
cavities of the earth to the surface, by the force of equilibrium, produee 
there extraordinary vaporization, when hygrometers have shone aisles 
dryness. The atmosphere, charged beyond measure aa tua will 
give room to their decomposition, which changes them and 
there 
surface of ay earth, which circumstance comments the internal phe- 
mena with those of the ines atmosphere. morning of the 
Sth of March, 1669, at Pidara, a town on the side of Mice the air became 
obscure, as by a partial eclipse or the sun; soon after the earth began 
to and continued so until the esr when an ng fissure 
opened near Nicolosi, a neighbouring town, a sparkling light ap 
over the fissure; and on that very day, while the terrible shocks 
levelling Nicolosi with the ground, an enormous burning river, amnidet 
rrid rumblings, roaring , was belche 
flowed fifteen miles, covering a great extent of land, and for four months 
spreading terror over Sicily.— Bor. de. nc. tm. Ferr. Descr. dell’ Etna, 
VoL, 1A--o. 2. 99 
