94 Miscellaneous. 



work in their development (under Professor Seeley's almost daily 

 superintendence) by Mr. Richard Hall's and the Barlows' unwearied 

 labours. These are a monument alone to his memory which can 

 never be forsfotten. 



2sa:iSOE331.I-.-A-3SrE]OXJS. 



The Messina Eakthqtjaze. 



The earthquake which at the close of last year devastated Messina 

 in Sicily and Reggio in Calabria, on the opposite shores of the Straits 

 in Southern Italy, is one of the most terrible and disastrous on record. 

 We gather the following particulars from the Times (Weeklj- Edition, 

 January 1, 1909) : — 



" The actual time of the earthquake seems to have been 5.20 on Monday morning, 

 December 28. The first intimation, according to reports from Catanzaro and by 

 fuo'itives from other places, was a prolonged, thunderous noise followed by a vivid 

 flash of lightning and at the same time by a series of violent shocks which seemed 

 interminable. Heavy torrential rain then fell. 



" The second shock was at 9.30 in the evening of the same day, but it was less 

 violent in character. 



' ' There was a violent shock at San Marco Argentine on Tuesday night, accom- 

 panied by prolonged subterranean thunder. Many houses were damaged. 



' ' A slight shock was felt at Palermo on Wednesday morning. 



" Messina has been almost totally destroyed by the earthquake and the following 

 upheaval of the sea. The worst damage was done by a vast wave, which has left the 

 whole front of the town facing the sea in ruins. Fires broke out in many parts of 

 the city and added to the difficulty of saving the innumerable persons who had been 

 buried alive. 



" Reggio, on the Italian side of the Strait, has also practically perished, and the 

 whole shape of the coastline at that point has been altered. The sea front has been 

 completely swept away, wliile the water in shore was blocked with sunken debris, 

 foundered" vessels, and every imaginable sort of obstruction. For a radius of 11 miles 

 the cormtry had a torn and twisted appearance, roads, bridges, footpaths, and 

 railway lines being uprooted. 



"The whole area of the ground below Reggio seemed to have turned over, and 

 a great part of the city was in ruins, covered by the sea. In many places deep 

 chasms appeared in the streets. Of all the villages looking towards Reggio on the 

 coast, not one has been left standing. 



' ' Most of the coast towns on both sides of the Strait of Messina have been wholly 

 or partially destroyed. 



" A rough estimate of the number of lives lost places it as more than 100,000 in 

 Messina alone, while the destruction of property has been enormous." 



Lyell, in his graphic account of the Calabrian Earthquake of 1783, 

 stated that " The shocks began in February [of that year], and lasted 

 for nearly four years, to the end of 1786".^ These remarks and the 

 subsequent history of the affected area do not lend encouragement to 

 future enterprise. 



Suess has observed in reference to the area of disturbance that 

 " the crust of the earth has sunk down in the form of a dish, and thus 

 radial fractures have been produced, which converge to the Lipari 

 Isles. These converging lines are beset with volcanos near their 



1 rnnciples of Geology, 11th ed., vol. ii, pp. 113-44. 



