102 Histo7'y of Anifnal Plagues. 



earthquakes extended as far as the neighbourhood of Basle, and 

 recurred until the year 1360, throughout Germany, France, 

 Silesia, Poland, England, and Denmark, and much further 

 north. Towering icebergs formed at the same time on the 

 coast of East Greenland, in consequence of the general concus- 

 sion of the earth^s organism ; and no mortal, from that time 

 forward, has ever seen that shore or its inhabitants. Mezeray 

 savs, ' A universal earthquake, even in France and the northern 

 countries, threvv^ down entire cities, tore up trees and mountains, 

 covered the regions of the world with abysses so profound that 

 it appeared as if the infernal regions had opened to swallow up 

 the human species.^ ^ 



Great and extraordinary meteors appeared in many places, 

 and were regarded with superstitious horror. A pillar of fire, 

 which on the 20th of December, 1348, remained for an hour at 

 sunrise over the Pope^s palace in Avignon;^ a fireball, which in 

 August of the same year was seen at sunset over Paris, and was 

 distinguished from similar phenomena by its longer duration, 

 not to mention other instances mixed up with wonderful prophe- 

 cies and omens, are recorded in the chronicles of that age. The 

 order of the seasons seemed to be inverted — rains (in Germany 

 these were blood-coloured), floods, and failures in crops were 

 so general, that few places were exempt from them. The con- 

 sequences of these failures were soon felt, especially in Italy and 

 the surrounding countries, where, in this year, a rain which had 

 continued for four months, destroyed the seed. ... To attempt, 

 five centuries after that age of desolation, to point out the causes 

 of a cosmical commotion, which has never recurred to an equal 

 extent, to indicate scientifically the influences which called forth 

 so terrific a poison in the bodies of men and animals, exceeds 

 the limits of human understanding. ... In the progress of con- 

 nected natural phenomena, from east to west, that great law of 

 nature is plainly revealed which has so often and evidently mani- 

 fested itself in the earth's organism, as well as in the state of 

 nations dependent upon it. In the inmost depths of the globe 

 that impulse was given in the year 1333, which in uninterrupted 



1 Mezeray. Op. cit. p. 418. 2 Villatii. Op. cit. 



