VOL. LXXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANS ACTIONS. 373 



XI. Of the Earthquakes which happened in Italy, from February to May, 1783. 

 By Sir Wm. Hamilton, F. R.S. &c. p. 169. 



Sir Win. H. here gives, he says, some little idea of the infinite damage done, 

 and of the various phenomena exhibited, by the earthquakes, (which began the 

 5th of Feb. 1783, and continued to be felt to the day he was writing, viz. 

 May 23) in the two Calabrias, at Messina, and in the parts of Sicily nearest to 

 the continent. From the most authentic reports, and accounts received at the 

 offices of his Sicilian Majesty's secretary of state, he gathered in general, that the 

 part of Calabria, which has been most affected by this heavy calamity, is that 

 which is comprehended between the 38th and 39th degree of latitude, being the 

 foot or extreme point of the continent ; that the greatest force of the earthquakes 

 seemed to have exerted itself from the foot of those mountains of the Apennines 

 called the Monte Deio, Monte Sacro, and Monte Caulone, extending westward 

 to the Tyrrene sea ; that the towns, villages and farm-houses, nearest these 

 mountains, situated either on hills or in the plain, were totally ruined by the first 

 shock of the 5th of February about noon ; and that the greatest mortality was 

 there ; that in proportion as the towns and villages were at a greater distance from 

 this centre, the damage they received was less considerable ; but that even those 

 more distant towns had been greatly damaged by the subsequent shocks of the 

 earthquake, and especially by those of the 7th, the 26th, and 28th of February, 

 and that of the 1st of March ; that from the first shock, the 5th of February, 

 the earth continued to be in a continual tremour, more or less ; and that the 

 shocks were more sensibly felt at times in some parts of the afflicted provinces 

 than in others ; that the motion of the earth had been various, and, according to 

 the Italian denomination, vorticoso, orizontale, and oscillatorio, that is, either 

 whirling like a vortex, horizontal, or by pulsations, or beatings from the bottom 

 upward ; that this variety of motion had increased the apprehensions of the un- 

 fortunate inhabitants of those parts, who expected every moment that the earth 

 would open under their feet, and swallow them up ; that the rains had been con- 

 tinual and violent, often accompanied with lightning and irregular and furious 

 gusts of wind ; that from all these causes the face of the earth of that part of 

 Calabria above-mentioned was entirely altered, particularly on the westward side 

 of the mountains above named ; that many openings and cracks had been made 

 in those parts ; that some hills had been lowered, and others quite levelled ; that 

 in the plains, deep chasms had been made, by which many roads were rendered 

 impassable; that huge mountains had been split asunder, and parts of them driven 

 to a considerable distance ; that deep vallies had been filled up by the mountains, 

 which formed those vallies, having been detached by the violence of the earth- 

 quakes, and joined together ; that the course of some rivers had been altered ; 

 that many springs of water had appeared in places that were perfectly dry before ; 



