Earthquakes in Sicily ^ 525 



jminds of the people, who are always seeking in the heavens 

 for signs of" future events. But it prepared a tempestuous 

 night, which followed, with torrenis of rain, with thunder* 

 snow, hail, and wind.* 



On the night of the 6th, at forty-five minutes past one, in 

 St. Lucia de Millazzo, six miles from the shore which looks 

 towards Vulcano and Stromboli, a severe shock was felt, 

 and afterwards, at various intervals, horrible noises were 

 heard, four distinct times, rumbling fearfully beneath them; 

 and finally, at half past three o'clock, the shock was re- 

 peated. IBoth were felt at Messina, but without any subter- 

 ranean noises. Nothing of it was felt at Palermo, or in any 

 places in the west. At fifty-six minutes past ten, in the 

 night of the 7th, another shock was felt at Palermo, saffi- 



* In all times signs have been mentioned as announcing' earthquake* 

 .near at hand. People read them in the air and upon the earth; and 

 some philosophers even have g-iven them credence. The frequent oc- 

 currence of these signs, without the expected phenomena, ie a sufBcient 

 argument against them. I3ut less uncertain are those which accompany 

 the phenomena, as rain and thunder. To that of 169S such fearful 

 storms succeeded, that for many hours, at Catania, the groans and voices 

 of the miserable wretches buried under the ruins, were drowned by the 

 roaring of the torrents of rain and the tremendous thunders. The same 

 circumstances took place at Calabria in 1783 ; and we were witnesses 

 of the same on the night of the 5th of March. An extraordinary quan- 

 tity of electric fluid is developed, and being conducted from the deep 

 cavities of the earth to the surface, by the force of equilibrium, produces 

 there extraordinary vaporization, when hygrometers have shone extreme 

 dryness. The atmosphere, charged beyond measure with vapours, will 

 give room to their decomposition, which changes them into vesicles, and 

 then into rain. Fiery meteors will be produced by the electric fluid, 

 liberated by the passage of the vapours to water. If hydrogen gas 

 escape from the earth, it may be inflamed by the electric spark and pre- 

 sent the appearance of fires. I should mention here, that in volcanic 

 regions, signs may sometimes precede earthquakes ; but this happens 

 there by the proximity of the place of the subterranean operations to the 

 surface of the earth, which circumstance connects the internal phe- 

 nomena with those of the adjacent atmosphere. On the morning of the 

 8th of March, 1669, at Pidara, a town on the side of iEtna, the air became 

 obscure, as by a partial eclipse of the sun ; soon after the earth began 

 to shake, and continued so until the 11th, when an unmense fissure 

 opened near Nicolosi, a neighbouring town, a sparkling light appeared 

 over the fissure ; and on that very day, while the terrible shocks were 

 levelling Nicolosi with the ground, an enormous burning river, amidst 

 horrid rumblings, roarings, and explosions, was belched out, which 

 flowed fifteen miles, covering a great extent of land, and for four months 

 spreading terror over Sicily Bor. de. inc,JEtn. Ferf.Deicr. deU 'Einfiy 



Vol. IX.— No. 2. 2p 



