On Volcanos and Earthquahes, 23 



Earthquake in Sicily^ 1692. Schenchzer. Phil. Tr.voL33. 



*' Just at the time of the second shock, the sea retired from the 

 land, all along the coast, leaving its bottom dry for a considerable 

 distance, and in a few minutes it returned again with great fury, 

 and overflowed the shores. In many places the earth gaped pro- 

 digiously Out of all these openings sprung forth a great quan- 

 tity of water, which drowned the neighbouring places. This 

 last (shake) was stupendous beyond imagination, the fiery erup- 

 tion of the burning jEtna throwing out a prodigious quantity of 

 flames, stones and ashes, &c." 



Earthquakes in the two Calabrias, Messina, ^c. 1783. By Sir Wm. 

 Hamilton. Phil. Tr. vol. 7,S. 



" A shock had raised and agitated the sea so violently, that the- 

 wave went furiously three miles inland, and swept off in its re- 

 turn two thousand four hundred and seventy-three of the inhab- 

 itants of Scilla, &c. 



" At the moment of the earthquake the river disappeared, and 

 returning soon after, overflowed, &c. 



" The officer who commanded in the citadel (Messina) assured 

 me that on the fifth of February, and the three following days, 

 the sea, about a quarter of a mile from that fortress, rose and 

 boiled with a most horrid noise, &c." 



The same. 1783. Count Francesco Ippolito. From the Italian. 



" Flames were seen to issue from the ground, &c. 



"Out of many of these apertures a great quantity of water 

 spouted during several hours ; from one of them, about a mile 

 from the sea, there came out a large quantity of salt water. 

 Warm water likewise issued from the apertures made in the 

 plain, &c." 



Molucca Islands. 1693. Iti a letter to JSficholas Wetsen, of Amster- 

 dam. Phil. Tr. vol. 19. 



" The mountain ( — ) has cast out so many stone, and some 



near six feet long, that the adjacent sea, which has been forty or 

 fifty fathoms deep, is not only filled up there, but become many 

 fathoms higher than the water." 



Eruption of Mount Vesuvius.^ June \2th, 1794. Sir William Ham- 

 ilton. Phil. Tr. vol. — . 

 " The classical accounts of the eruption of Vesuvius, which 

 destroyed Herculaneum and Pompei, and many of the existing 

 printed accounts of its great eruption in 1631, might pass for an 

 account of the late eruption, by only changing the date, and omit™ 



