156 Analysis of Scientific Books and Memoirs, 



between sixteen and seventeen seconds ; the time was precisely marked by 

 the seconds hand of a watch which I had with me. The direction was 

 from north-east to south-west. Many persons who ran towards me from 

 the south-west, at the time of this terrible phenomenon, were opposed by 

 the resistance of the earth. The spear of the vane on the top of the new 

 gate connected with the palace, and upon which I fixed my eyes, bowed 

 in that direction, and remained so until the Sabbath, when it fell ; it was 

 inclined to the south-west in an angle of 20°. The waters in the great 

 basin of the Botanical Garden, as was told me by an eye witness, were 

 urged up in the same direction by the second shock; and a palm tree, 

 thirty feet high, in the same garden, was seen to bow its long leafless 

 branches alternately to the north-east and south-west, almost to the ground. 

 The clocks in the observatory, which vibrated from north to south, and 

 from east to west, were stopped, because the direction of the shock cut 

 obliquely the plane of their respective vibrations ; and the weight of one 

 of them broke its crystal. But two small clocks in my chamber kept their 

 motion, as their vibrations were in the direction of the shock. The mer- 

 cury in the sismometer preserved in the observatory was put into violent 

 motion, and at the fifth shock, it seemed as much agitated as if it were 

 boiling. 



To the west of Palermo, within the mountains, the earthquake retained 

 little of its power ; since at Morreale, four miles distant, trifling injury 

 only was sustained by the (Benedictine) Monastery of S. Castrense, the 

 house of the P. P. Conviventi, and the Seminary dei Cherici. At Parco, 

 six miles distant, Mary's College, the Monastery, the parish Church, and 

 a few peasants' cottages, were all that suffered. At Piana, the battlements 

 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 were ruined, and at Torretta, four- 

 teen miles, where the cathedral, two storehouses, and some dwelling- 

 houses, were destroyed. Beyond, its power continued to diminish ; and 

 at Castellamare, twenty-four miles, the state-house alone had the cleft, 

 which was made in 1819, enlarged. 



In maritime places east of Palermo, the shock was immense. At Alta- 

 villa, 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 

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

 shocks were very violent, exceeding all that had happened within the me- 

 mory of its inhabitants. Those of 1818-19 were very strong, but the city 

 received at those times no injury ; now the convent of St Antonio, Mary's 

 College, and various private houses, felt its effects. 



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

 bouring wells, which proceed from the same subterranean source in the 

 mountains along the coast of Termini, increased in quantity and warmth, 

 and became turbid ; consequences that always succeed convulsions of the 

 earth, by which their internal streams are disordered. The clay tinged 



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