THE EARTH. 



33 



tains than in the valleys. Its motions were 

 so rapid, that those who lay at their length 

 were tossed from side to side, as upon a roll- 

 ing billow.* The walls were dashed from 

 their foundations ; and no less than fifty-four 

 cities, with an incredible number of villages, 

 were either destroyed or greatly damaged. 

 The city of Catanca, in particular, was utterly 

 overthrown. A traveller, who was on his way 

 thither, at the distance of some miles, per- 

 ceived a black cloud, like night, hanging- 

 over the place. The sea, all of a sudden, 

 began to roar; Mount J^tna to send forth 

 great spires of flame; and soon after a shock 

 ensued, with a noise as if all the artillery in 

 the world had been at once discharged. Our 

 traveller, being obliged to alight instantly, 

 felt himself raised a foot from the ground ; 

 and turning his eyes to the city, he, with 

 amazement, saw nothing but a thick cloud of 

 dust in the air. The birds flew about asto- 

 nished; the sun was darkened ; the beasts ran 

 howling from the hills; and although the 

 shock did not continue above three minutes, 

 yet near nineteen thousand of the inhabitants 

 of Sicily perished in the ruins. Catanea, to 

 which city the describer was travelling, seem- 

 ed the principal scene of ruin; its place only 

 was to be found ; and not a footstep of its 

 former magnificence was to be seen remain- 

 ing. - 



The earthquake which happened in Ja- 

 maica, in 1692, was very terrible, and its 

 description sufficiently minute. " In two 

 minutes' time it destroyed the town of Port 

 Royal, and sunk the houses in a gulf forty 

 fathoms deep. It was attended with a hollow 

 rumbling noise, like that of thunder; and," in 

 less than a minute, three parts of the houses, 

 and their inhabitants, were all sunkquite under 

 water. While they were thus swallowed up 

 on one side of the street, on the other the 

 houses were thrown into heaps; the sand 

 of the streets rising like the waves of the 

 eea, lifting up those that stood upon it, and 

 immediately overwhelming them in pits. All 

 the wells discharged their waters with the 

 most vehement agitation. The sea felt an 

 equal share of turbulence, and, bursting over 

 its mounds, deluged all that came in its way. 



Phil. Trans, 



The fissures of the earth were, in some places, 

 so great, that one of the streets appeared 

 twice as broad as formerly. In many places, 

 however, it opened and closed again, and 

 continued this agitation for some time. Of 

 these openings, two or three hundred might 

 be seen at a time ; in some whereof the peo- 

 ple were swallowed up ; in others, the earth 

 closing, caught them by the middle, and thus 

 crushed them instantly to death. Other 

 openings, still more dreadful than the rest, 

 swallowed up whole streets ; and others, 

 more formidable, spouted up whole cataracts 

 of water, drowning such as the earthquake 

 had spared. The whole was attended with 

 the most noisome stench ; while the thunder- 

 ing of the distant falling mountains, the whole 

 sky overcast with a dusky gloom, and the 

 crash of falling habitations, gave unspeaka- 

 ble horror to the scene. After this dreadful 

 calamity was over, the whole island seemed 

 converted into a scene of desolation ; scarcely 

 a planter's house was left standing ; almost 

 all were swallowed up; houses, people, trees, 

 shared one universal ruin; and in their places 

 appeared great pools of water, which, when 

 dried up by the sun, left only a plain of barren 

 sand, without any vestige of former inhabi- 

 tants. Most of the rivers, during the earth- 

 quake, were stopped up by the falling in of the 

 mountains ; and it was not till after some time 

 that they made themselves new channels. 

 The mountains seemed particularly attacked 

 by the force of the shock ; and it was sup- 

 posed that the principal seat of the concus- 

 sion was among them. Those who were 

 saved got on board ships in the harbour, where 

 many remained above two months; the shocks 

 continuing, during that interval, with more or 

 less violence every day." 



As this description seems to exhibit all the 

 appearances that usually make up the cata- 

 logue of terrors belonging to an earthquake. 

 I will suppress the detail of that which hap- 

 pened at Lisbon in our own times, and which 

 is too recent to require a description. In fact, 

 there are few particulars in the accounts of 

 those who were present at that scene of deso- 

 lation, that we have not more minutely and 

 accurately transmitted to us by former wri- 

 ters, whose narratives I have for that reason 

 preferred, I will therefore close this descrip- 



