2\ii Karlkquakes in Sicily. 



which their internal streams are disordered. Tlie claf 

 tinged the fluid with its own colour, and equal volumes of 

 the water yielded a greater quantity of the clay than before, 

 when the colour was deeper.* Most of the houses in the 

 little new town of Sarcari, two miles from the shore, and 

 consisting of less than a hundred houses, were rendered un- 

 inhabitable ; the walls were thrown down, and the more 

 lofty buildings were all damaged. The effects of the earth- 

 quake are found to be greater in proportion to its advance 

 eastward. 



Forty-eight miles from Palermo, at Cefalu, a large city on 

 the shore of a promontory, the effects were various and inju- 

 rious. Without the walls, two convents, a storehouse, and 

 some country houses, were injured, but no lives were lost. 

 The sea made a violent and sudden rush to the shore, carry- 

 ing with it a large ship laden with oil ; and when the wave 

 retired, she was left quite dry ; but a second wave returned 

 with such immense force, that the ship was dashed in pieces, 

 and the oil lost. Boats, which were approaching the shore, 

 were borne rapidly forward to the land, but at the return of 

 the water, they were carried as rapidly back, far beyond 

 their first situation. The same motion of the sea, but less 

 violent, was observed all along the shore, as far even as Pa- 

 lermo. Pollina. a town with nine hundred inhabitants, occu- 

 pying an elevated position at a little distance from the sea, 

 was injured in almost every building ; particularly in the 

 church of St. Peter and Nunciata, in the castle, the tower, 

 and in other places. Nor did Finale, a little nearer the 

 shore, suffer less ; five of its houses fell in consequence, on 

 the eleventh of March. 



Beyond the towns which have been mentioned, tqwards 

 the interior of the island, the shock was vigorous to a cer- 

 tain extent; but kept decreasing as it proceeded, throughout 

 the whole surface. At Ciminna, south of Termini, a statue 

 was shaken from its place on the top of a belfrey in front of 

 the great church, and a part of the clock tower falling, killed 

 one person, and badly wounded another. In Cerda, the 

 shock affected the great church, some houses, and half of 



* The warm and mineral waters of St. Euphemia, in Calabria, which 

 •prungup after tlie memorable earthquakes in 1638, presented the same 

 phenomena in those of 1783. Grimaldi descr. dei trem. del. 1783. 



