EARTH 



rising with a great swell, without the least noise, and 

 as suddenly advancing, overflowed the shore, and 

 entered the city. It rose fifteen feet perpendicular 

 above the high-water mark, although the tide, which 

 flows there seven feet, was then at half ebb. The 

 \\;itcr immediately receded ; and, after having fluctu- 

 ated lour or five times between high and low-water 

 mark, it subsided, and the sea remained calm as 

 before. In the northern part of the island the inun- 

 dation was more violent, the sea there retiring above 

 one hundred paces at first, and, suddenly returning, 

 overflowed the shore, forcing open doors, breaking 

 down the walls of several magazines and storehouses, 

 leaving great quantities of fish ashore and in the 

 streets of the village of Machico. All this was the 

 effect of one rising of the sea, for it never afterwards 

 flowed high enough to reach the high-water mark. It 

 continued, however, to fluctuate here much longer 

 before it subsided than at Funchal ; and in some 

 places to the westward, it was hardly perceptible. 



In many parts of Germany the effects of the earth- 

 quake were very extraordinary. Throughout the duchy 

 of Holstein, the waters were violently agitated, par- 

 ticularly those of the Elbe and Trave. In Branden- 

 burg, the waters of a large lake called Libsec ebbed 

 and flowed six times in half an hour, with a dreadful 

 noise, the weather being then perfectly calm. The 

 same agitation was observed in the waters of the 

 lakes called Muplgast and Netzo ; but at this last place 

 they also emitted an intolerable stench. 



In our own island the effects of the earthquake 

 were very perceptible, though not felt with the same 

 terrific violence as on the continent of Europe. At 

 Kyatii Bridge, in Derbyshire, some miners who were 

 at the bottom of a shaft about four hundred and fifty 

 feet in depth, were thrown to another part of the 

 gallery where they were working, and the neigh- 

 bouring waters were violently agitated. 



At Loch Lomond, in Scotland, the water was sud- 

 denly hurled against its banks, but immediately sub- 

 sided, till it was as low in appearance as any body 

 then present had ever seen it in the greatest summer- 

 drought. Instantly it returned towards the shore, 

 and iu five minutes' time rose again as high as before. 

 The greatest perpendicular height of this swell was 

 two feet four inches. A still more remarkable pheno- 

 menon attendant on the earthquake in this lake was, 

 that a lartre stone lying at some distance from the shore, 

 was forced out of its place in the lake upon dry land, 

 leaving a deep furrow in the ground along the way 

 in which it had moved. 



In Loch Ness, about half an hour after nine, a very 

 great agitation was observed in the water. About 

 ten the river Oich, which runs on the north side of 

 Fort Augustus into the head of the loch, was observed 

 to swell very much, and run upwards from the loch 

 with a pretty high wave, about two or three feet 

 higher than the ordinary surface. The motion of the 

 wave was against the wind, and it proceeded rapidly 

 tor about -2(10 yards up the river. It then broke on 

 illow, and flowed three or four feet on the banks, 

 after which it returned gently to the loch. It con- 

 tinued ebbing and flowing in this manner for about an 

 hour, without any such remarkable waves as the first ; 

 but about eleven o'clock, a wave higher than any of 

 the rest came up, and broke with so much force on 

 the low ground on the north side of the river, that it 

 ran upon the grass upwards of thirty feet from the 

 river's bank. 



QUAKE. 373 



At Kinsale, between two and three in the after- 

 noon, the weather being very calm, arid the tide near 

 full, a large body of water suddenly poured into the 

 harbour with such rapidity, that it broke the cables 

 of two sloops, each moored with two anchors, 

 and of several boats lying near the town. But 

 just at the time that a great deal of mischief was 

 apprehended by all the vessels running foul of each 

 other, an eddy whirled them round several times, and 

 then hurried them back again with the same rapidity 

 as before. This was several times repeated ; and 

 while the current rushed up at one side of the harbour, 

 it poured down with equal violence at the other. A 

 vessel that lay all this time in the pool did not seem 

 to be any ways affected by it ; nor was the violence 

 of the currents much perceived in the deeper parts 

 of the harbour, but raged with most violence on the 

 flats. The bottom of the harbour, which is muddy, 

 was much altered ; the mud being washed from some 

 places, and deposited in others. The perpendicular 

 rise of the water at one quay was measured, and 

 found to be five feet and a half ; and is said to have 

 been much higher at another, where it overflowed, 

 and poured into the market-place with such rapidity, 

 that some people who were on the quay immediately 

 ran off, and yet could not prevent themselves from 

 being overtaken and immersed knee-deep in the 

 water. The agitations extended several miles up the 

 river ; but, as in the harbour, were most perceived in 

 the shallowest places. The successive risings and 

 fallings of the water continued about ten minutes, and 

 then the tide returned to its natural course. Between 

 six and seven in the evening, the water rose again, 

 though not with so great violence as before, and it 

 continued to ebb and flow alternately till three in 

 the morning. The waters did not rise gradually at 

 first ; but, with " a hollow and horrid noise, rushed in 

 like a deluge, rising six or seven feet in a minute, and 

 as suddenly subsiding. They were as thick as puddle, 

 very black, and stank intolerably." From different 

 accounts it appeared, that the water was affected in a 

 similar manner all along the coast to the westward of 

 Kinsale. 



Such were the phenomena of this very remarkable 

 and destructive earthquake, which extended over 

 an immense tract of country. The earthquakes, 

 however, which in the year 1788 ruined a great 

 part of Italy and Sicily, though much more con- 

 fined in their extent, seem to have been not at all 

 inferior in violence. Sir William Hamilton, who wrote 

 a particular account of their effects, informs us, that 

 "if, on a map of Italy, and with your compass on the 

 scale of Italian miles you were to measure off twenty- 

 two, and then, fixing the central point in the city of 

 Oppido (which seemed to be the spot where the 

 earthquake had exerted its greatest force), form a circle 

 (the radii of which will be twenty-two miles), you will 

 then include all the towns, villages, &c. that have 

 been utterly ruined, and the spots where the greatest 

 mortality happened, and where there have been the 

 most visible alterations on the face of the earth : then 

 extend your compass on the same scale to seventy-two 

 miles, preserving the same centre, and form another 

 circle, you will include the whole country that has 

 any mark of having been affected by the earthquake. 

 A gradation was plainly observed in the damage done 

 to the buildings, as also in the degree of mortality, in 

 proportion as the countries were more or less distant 

 from this supposed centre of the evil." Another cir- 



