VOL. LXXIII.j PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 383 



2473 of his unfortunate subjects. The following is the fact. The prince of 

 Scilla having remarked, that during the first horrid shock, which happened 

 about noon the 5th of February, part of a rock near Scilla had been detached 

 into the sea, and fearing that the rock of Scilla, on which his castle and town 

 is situated, might also be detached, thought it safer to prepare boats, and retire 

 to a little port or beach surrounded by rocks at the foot of the rock. The 2d 

 shock of the earthquake, after midnight, detached a whole mountain, much 

 higher than that of Scilla, and partly calcareous, and partly cretaceous, situ- 

 ated between the Torre del Cavallo and the rock of Scilla. This having fallen 

 with violence into the sea, at that time perfectly calm, raised the fatal wave, 

 which broke on the neck of land, called the Punta del Faro, in the island of 

 Sicily, with such fury, and returning with great noise and celerity directly on 

 the beach, where the prince and the unfortunate inhabitants of Scilla had taken 

 refuge, either dashed them with their boats and richest effects against the rocks, 

 or whirled them into the sea ; those who had escaped the first and greatest wave 

 were carried off* by a 2d and 3d, which were less considerable, and immediately 

 followed the first. 



To conclude : the idea I have of the present local earthquakes is, that they 

 have been caused by the same kkid of matter that gave birth to the iEolian or 

 Lipari islands ; that perhaps an opening may have been made at the bottom of 

 the sea, and most probably between Stromboli and Calabria Ultra, for from that 

 quarter all agree, that the subterraneous noises seem to have proceeded ; and 

 that the foundation of a new island or volcano may have been laid, though it 

 may be ages, which to nature are but moments, before it is completed, and ap- 

 pears above the surface of the sea. Nature is ever active ; but her actions are, 

 in general, carried on so very slowly, as scarcely to be perceived by mortal eye, 

 or recorded in the very short space of what we call history, let it be ever so an- 

 cient. Perhaps too, the whole destruction I have been describing may have 

 proceeded simply from the exhalations of confined vapours, generated by the 

 fermentation of such minerals as produce volcanoes, which have escaped where 

 they meet with the least resistance, and must naturally in a greater degree have 

 affected the plain, than the high and more solid grounds around it. 



XII. Account of the Earthquake in Calabria, March 28, 1783. In a Letter 

 from Count Francesco Ippolito to Sir fV. Hamilton. From the Italian, p. 20g. 



Calabria has been at all times exposed to the terrible convulsions, of which 

 we are at present the victims. The earthquakes in 1 63 8 and 1659, by which 

 the two provinces of Calabria were almost utterly destroyed, are fresh in every 

 one's memory, as well as that of the year 1 74-f-, which afflicted us for a long 

 time, but without loss of cities or of men. Reggio, and the countries near it, 



