EARTHQUAKES 325 



moment the populous capital of Portugal was noth- 

 ing but a heap of ruins and dead bodies. The peo- 

 ple that were still left, seeking refuge from the fall 

 of the ruins, had retired to a large quay on the sea- 

 shore. All at once the quay was swallowed up in the 

 waters, dragging with it the crowd and the boats 

 and ships moored there. Not a victim, not a piece 

 of wreck came back to float on the surface. An abyss 

 had opened, sWallowing up waters, quay, ships, peo- 

 ple, and, closing up again, kept them for ever. In ^ 

 six minutes sixty thousand persons perished. 



"While that was happening at Lisbon and the 

 hi nil mountains of Portugal were shaking on their 

 bases, several towns of Africa Morocco, Fez, Me- 

 quinez were overthrown. A village of ten thou- 

 sand souls was swallowed up with its entire popula- 

 tion in an abyss suddenly opened and suddenly 

 closed. ' ' 



"Never, Uncle, have I heard of such terrible 

 things," declared Jules. 



"And I laughed," said Emile, "when Mother Am- 

 broisine told us of her fright. It was nothing to 

 laugh at. If it had been God's will, our village might 

 last night have disappeared from the earth with us 

 all, as did that one in Africa." 



"Listen to this, too," Uncle Paul continued. "In 

 February, 1783, in Southern Italy, convulsions be- ^ 

 gan that lasted four years. During the first year j 

 alone nine hundred and forty-nine were counted. ) 

 The surface of the ground was wrinkled in moving 

 waves like the surface of a stormy sea, and on this 

 unstable ground peoj >1<- frit nauseated as if on the 



