122 History of Nature. [BooK II. 



Passages ; roaring in moist Places ; waving and floating in 

 standing Waters ; boiling against solid Things. And there- 

 fore, oftentimes a Noise is heard without an Earthquake : 

 and never doth it shake after exactly the same Manner, but 

 trembleth and vibrateth. The gaping Chink sometimes re- 

 maineth wide open, and sheweth what it hath swallowed up ; 

 and at other Times it closeth up the Mouth, and hideth all : 

 and the Earth is brought together so again that there remain 

 no Marks to be seen : notwithstanding many a Time it hath 

 devoured Cities, and drawn into it a whole Tract of Country. 

 Maritime Regions, most of all, feel Earthquakes : neither 

 are the hilly Countries without this Calamity. I myself 

 have known by examination, that the Alps and Apennines 

 have oftentimes trembled. In the Autumn and Spring there 

 happen more Earthquakes than at other Times, the same as 

 Lightnings. And, therefore, Gallia and Egypt least of all be 

 shaken : for in Egypt the continual Summer 1 , and in Gallia 

 the Winter, is against it. Also, Earthquakes are more rife 

 by Night than by Day. But the greatest Shocks are in the 

 Morning and Evening. Toward Daylight there be many : 

 and if by Day, it is usually about Noon. They are also 

 when the Sun and Moon are eclipsed, because then Tempests 

 are laid to Rest: but especially, when after much Rain there 

 followeth a great Heat; or after Heat, much Rain. 



CHAPTER LXXXI. 

 Signs of Approaching Earthquakes. 



SAILORS also perceive it by an undoubting Conjecture, 

 when the Waves swell suddenly without any Gale of Wind, 

 or when they feel a Shock. And then do the Things quake 



1 It has been contended that the internal actions of the earth, causing 

 or affected by volcanic motion, are intimately connected with changes in 

 the atmosphere and the variety of the seasons ; giving rise also to epidemic 

 diseases, both in man and animals, and even in vegetables : and on the 

 other hand, that the actions of the earth, in earthquakes and volcanoes, 

 are connected with what we now denominate the electric state of the 

 atmosphere. Several coincidences of this kind have been remarked; 

 and in either case they are applicable to Egypt above other countries. 

 Wern. Club. 



