THE STORY-BOOK OF SCIENCE 



of a vessel. Sea-sickness reigned on land. 

 At every undulation, the clouds, really immobile, 

 seemed to move bruskly, just as they do at sea 

 when we are on a vessel tossed by the winds. Tivrs 

 bowed in the terrestrial wave and swept the earth 

 with their tops. 



"In two minutes the first shock overthrew the 

 greater part of towns, villages, and small boroughs 

 of Southern Italy, as well as of Sicily. The whole 

 surface of the country was thrown into confusion. 

 In several places the ground was creviced with fis- 

 sures, resembling on a large scale the cracks in a 

 pane of broken glass. Vast tracts of ground, with 

 their cultivated fields, their dwellings, vines, olive- 

 trees, slid down the mountain-sides and wont 

 considerable distances, to settle finally on other sites. 

 Here, hills split in two; there, they were torn from 

 their places and transported to some other part. 

 Elsewhere, there was nothing to uphold the ground, 

 and it was engulfed in yawning abysses, taking with 

 it dwellings, trees, and animals, which were never 

 seen again ; in still other places, deep funnels full of 

 moving sand opened, forming presently vast cavi- 

 ties that were soon converted into lakes by the in- 

 rush of subterranean waters. It is estimated that 

 more than two hundred lakes, ponds, and marshes 

 were thus suddenly produced. 



"In certain places the ground, softened by waters 

 turned from their channels or brought from the in- 

 terior by the crevices, was converted into torrents of 

 mud that covered the plains or filled the valleys. 

 The tops of trees and the roofs of ruined farm build- 



