THE EARTH. 



87 



tbose who were pvesent at that scene of de=?olation. that, we have 

 not more minutely and accurately transmitted to us by form'T 

 wi-iters, whose narratives I have for that reason preferred. I 

 will therefore close this description of human calamities with 

 the account of the dreadful earthquake at Calahria, in 16.38. It 

 is related by the celebrated Father Kircher, as it happened while 

 he was on his journey to visit Mount ^tna, and the rest of the 

 wonders that lie towards the south of Ifcily. I need scarcely 

 inform the reader, that Kircher is considered, by scholars, as one 

 of the greatest prodigies of learning. 



" Having hired a boat, in company with four more, two friars 

 of the order of St Francis, and two seculars, we launched, on 

 the twenty-fourth of March, from the harbour of Messina in 

 Sicily, and arrived the same day at the promontory of Pelorus. 

 Our d-rstination was for the city of Euphoemia, in Calabria, 



severed, and portions of tliera driven into the valleys, which were thus filled 

 up. The total amount of the mortality occasioned by these earthquakes in 

 Sicily and the two Calabrias, was, agreeably to the official returns, .'52,367 ; 

 but Sir William Hamilton thought it stUl greater, and carries his estimation 

 to 40,000, including- foreigners. The shocks felt since the commencement of 

 these formidable earthquake^ amounted to several hundreds ; and among the 

 most violent may be reckoned the one which happened on the 29th of March. 

 It aifected most of the higher parts of Upper Calabria, and the inferior part of 

 Lower Calabria, being equally treraendi>us with the first. Indeed these 

 shocks were the only ones sensibly felt in the capital, Naples. With relation 

 to the former, two singrilar phenomena are recorded. At a distance of about 

 three miles from the ruined city of Oppido, in Upper Calabria, was a hill, 

 having a sandy and clayey soil, nearly -100 feet in height, and nearly 900 feet 

 in circumference at its base. This hill is said to have been carried to the dis- 

 tance of about four miles from the spot where it stood, into a plain called 

 Campo de Bassano. At the same time, the hill on which the city of Oppido 

 stood, and which extended about three miles, divided into two parts, being 

 situated between two rivers, its ruins filled up the valley, and stopped their 

 course, forming two large lakes, which augmented daily. By the earthquake 

 experienced in Chili in 1822, a great line of coast is stated to have been lifted 

 permanently up to the height of several feet above its former level : and il 

 deserves remark, that though earthquakes are sometimes felt in the interioi 

 of countries, their most terrible eflfects occur chiefly along the coast. On the 

 2d March, 1825, the city of Algiers was visited with a tremendous earth- 

 quake, which destroyed at least 10,000 human beings. It is worthy of remark, 

 that the same phenomena which generally precedes the eruption of .^tna and 

 Vesuvius, occured at Bluda, on this occasion ; namely, all the wells and foun. 

 tains in the neighbourhood becaine perfectly dry. The bar">met:'r had fallen 

 gradually for someday? b?fore the earthquake; and the thermometer rose 

 suddenly from 5S to Ci^ degrees on iIin rl:i.y it Iiappened. 



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