VOL. XVIII.] VHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. dOS3 



Fazello, viz. in 1542, Dec. 10, which shook the whole island, and espe- 

 cially Val di Noto, Syracusa, Lentini, Sortini, Mililli, Catania, Agosta, Noto, 

 Caltagirone, Militello ; and, in short, the same cities and castles which were 

 so miserably ruined by the two late violent earthquakes of this present year 

 1693. 



The first of which was at five o'clock ihe next night after the gth of January. 

 Its motion was of that sort which Aristotle and Pliny call the first species, and 

 is by them compared to the shaking fit of an ague, causing such a motion as 

 shakes the earth from side to side. In this shock almost all the edifices in the 

 country were thrown down, of which some were very high and strong built 

 towers. A great part of the city of Catania, with many others, was demolished, 

 and a great many buildings in Val di Noto. Syracuse was also much shattered, 

 but not ruined. This was not preceded by any darkness in the air, but a pleas- 

 ing serene warm season, which was the more observable, as being unusual at 

 that time of the year. The evening before, some persons observed a great 

 fiame or light, at about an Italian mile distance; and so bright, that they took 

 it for a real fire made by some of the country people; and though they went 

 directly towards it, yet it seemed to keep at the same distance from them. 

 While they were observing this appearance, the earthquake began, and the 

 light quite vanished ; and the wav6s of the sea, which before the shock only 

 beat gently on the shore, began now to make a dreadful noise. The next two 

 days and night the air was overshadowed with darkness, being tinged with a 

 deep yellow, and the obscured sun struck our minds with the melancholy pre- 

 sage of the approaching earthquake; which was the second, and happened on 

 the 11th of January, and lasted about 4 minutes. It was much like the second 

 sort, which Aristotle and Pliny call a pulse or stroke, from its resemblance to 

 the beating of an artery; and by Possidonius, in Seneca, is represented by the 

 name of vibrations, it being a perpendicular lifting up of the earth. 



So horrid and amazing a shock was at once spread over all Sicily, and its 

 impulse was so vehement and powerful, that not only many cities and parts of 

 the kingdom of Naples, but the island of Malta shared in its fury. It was 

 impossible to keep upon our legs, and even those who lay along on the ground, 

 were tossed from side to side, as if on a rolling billow. In open places, the 

 sea sunk down considerably, and in the same proportion in the ports and 

 inclosed bays, and the water bubbled up all along the shore. The earth opened 

 in several places in very long clefts, some a hand's breadth, others half a palm, 

 others like great gulfs. From those openings in the valleys such a quantity of 



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