376 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1783. 



the Faro was half destroyed ; and that the same wave, that had done such mis- 

 chief at Scilla, had passed over the point of land at the Faro, and carried off 

 about 24 people. The viceroy of Sicily likewise gave an account of some 

 damage done by the earthquakes, but nothing considerable, at Melazzo, Patti, 

 Terra di Santa Lucia, Castro Reale, and in the island of Lipari. 



Such was the intelligence Sir Wm. was possessed of by those reports ; but as 

 he was particularly curious on the subject of volcanos, and was persuaded in his 

 own mind, from the earthquakes being confined to one spot, that some great 

 chemical operation of nature, of the volcanic sort, was the real cause of them ; 

 in order to clear up many points, and to come at truth, he took the sudden 

 resolution to employ about 20 days in making the tour of such parts of Calabria 

 Ultra and Sicily as had been, and were still, most affected by the earthquakes, 

 and examining with his own eyes the phenomena abovementioned. He accord- 

 ingly hired for that purpose a Maltese Speronara for himself, and a Neapolitan 

 Felucca for his servants, leaving Naples the 2d of May, he sailed round the 

 coasts of the Calabrias, that had been afflicted with this grievous misfortune ; 

 occasionally landing in different parts, and making incursions inland, to learn, 

 by his own eyes and ears, some particulars of such mighty mischiefs : by which 

 means the foregoing general accounts were mostly confirmed, with some slight 

 variations, and many curious particular circumstances. At most places he per- 

 ceived ruined towns and houses, and that most of the inhabitants were in bar- 

 racks, which are just such sort of buildings as the booths of our country fairs, 

 though indeed many as he had seen were more like our pig-sties. In several of 

 the parts, from the barracks having been ill-constructed, and many of them 

 situated in a very unwholesome spot, an epidemical disorder had taken place, 

 and carried off many, and was still in fatal force while he was there. And he 

 feared, as the heats should increase, the same misfortune would attend most 

 parts of the unfortunate Calabria, as also the city of Messina All reports 

 agreed, that every shock of the earthquake seemed to come with a rumbling 

 noise from the westward, beginning usually with the horizontal motion, and 

 ending with the vorticose, which is the motion that has ruined most of the 

 buildings in this province. He found it a »eneral observation also, that before a 

 shock of an earthquake, the clouds seemed to be fixed and motionless; and that 

 immediately after a heavy shower of rain, a shock quickly followed. He spoke 

 with many who were thrown down by the violence of some of the shocks; and 

 several peasants in the country said that the motion of the earth was so violent, 

 that the heads of the largest trees almost touched the ground from side to side ; 

 that during a shock, oxen and horses extended their legs wide asunder not to be 

 thrown down, and that they gave evident signs of being sensible of the approach 

 of each shock. Sir Wm. himself observed, that in the parts that have suffered 



