252 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



nucleus and the sandy soil. Many lands slipping thus 

 were carried to a considerable distance from their 

 former position, so as entirely to cover others; and 

 disputes arose as to whom the property which had thus 

 shifted its place should belong to.' 



The whole of the country over which the effects of 

 the great shocks extended was at times heaved simul- 

 taneously, like an angry sea, and sensations resembling 

 sea-sickness were experienced by many of the inhabi- 

 tants. Those who have watched the sky from the deck 

 of a sea-tossed ship will have noticed that the drifting 

 clouds seem at times to be arrested in their motion : 

 it is in reality the ship which is moving for the moment 

 in the same direction as the clouds, and thus neu- 

 tralises the effects of their motion. The same phe- 

 nomenon was observed during the Calabrian earth- 

 quake ; and nothing serves to give us a stronger im- 

 pression of the turbulence of those internal heavings 

 which made the dry land as unstable as the billows of 

 a swelling sea. Trees whose roots continued firmly 

 embedded in the soil were seen to lash the ground with 

 their branches. 



It will be evident that the seat of disturbance was 

 beneath the rocky ribs of the Apennines. The super- 

 incumbent soil was swayed with violence by the vibra- 

 ting mountain-slopes. But the chief mischief followed 

 when the vibration ceased. For then the soil to which 

 motion had been communicated began to slide over the 

 now stationary granite, and this sliding motion being 

 quickly checked by the irregularities of the rocky 



