374 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1783. 



and that in other parts, springs that had been constant had totally disappeared ; 

 that near Laureano in Calabria Ultra, a singular phenomenon had been produced, 

 that the surface of two whole tenements or tracts of land, with large olive and 

 mulberry-trees on them, situated in a valley perfectly level, had been detached by 

 the earthquake, and transplanted, the trees still remaining in their places, to the 

 distance of about a mile from their first situations ; and that from the spot on 

 which they formerly stood hot water had sprung up to a considerable height, 

 mixed with sand of a ferruginous nature ; that near this place also some country- 

 men and shepherds had been swallowed up with their teams of oxen and their 

 flocks of goats and sheep ; in short, that beginning from the city of Amantea, 

 situated on the coast of the Tyrrene sea in Calabria Citra, and going along the 

 westward coast to Cape Spartivento in Calabria Ultra, and then up the eastern 

 coast as far as the Cape d'Alice (a part of Calabria Citra on the Ionian sea), there 

 is not a town or village, either on the coast or inland, but what is either totally 

 destroyed, or has suffered more or less, amounting in all to near 400, what are 

 called here paeses. A village containing less than 100 inhabitants is not counted 

 as a paese. 



The greatest mortality fell upon those towns and countries situated in the plain 

 on the western side of the mountains Dejo, Sacro, and Caulone. At Casal Nuovo, 

 the Princess Gerace, and upwards of 4000 of the inhabitants, lost their lives; at 

 Bagnara, the number of dead amounts to 3017 ; Radicina and Palmi count their 

 loss at about 3000 each; Terranuova about 1400; Seminari still more. The 

 sum total of the mortality in both Calabrias and in Sicily, by the earthquakes 

 alone, according to the returns in the secretary of state's office at Naples, is 

 32,367 ; but there was good reason to believe that, including strangers, the 

 number of lives lost must have been considerably greater, 40,000 at least may 

 be allowed, and Sir Win. believed, without any exaggeration. From the same 

 office it was stated that the inhabitants of Scilla, on the first shock of the earth- 

 quake, the 5th of February, had escaped from their houses on the rock, and, 

 following the example of their prince, taken shelter on the sea-shore ; but that 

 in the night-time the same shock, which had raised and agitated the sea so 

 violently, and done so much damage on the point of the Faro of Messina, had 

 acted with still greater violence there, for that the wave (which was falsely re- 

 presented to have been boiling hot, and that many people had been scalded by its 

 rising to a great height) went furiously .5 miles inland, and swept off in its re- 

 turn 2473 of the inhabitants of Scilla, with the prince at their head, who were 

 at that time either on the Scilla strand, or in boats near the shore. 



All accounts agreed, that of the number of shocks which have been felt since 

 the beginning of this formidable earthquake, amounting to some hundreds, the 

 most violent, and of the longest duration, were those of the 5th of February at 



