Geological Gleanings. 138 



in which the earth's internal forces are still acting, making them- 

 selves felt at the surface. A letter from an eminent living geolo- 

 gist, who revisited Naples and Sicily in the past winter, informs us 

 that after an interval of 28 years, both Vesuvius and Etna presented 

 great and marked differences of aspect; and it would only be m 

 accordance with past experience, if the recent earthquakes have 

 permanently, if we may use the word, changed the levels of land 

 and water in portions of the Neapolitan territory. The following 

 extracts from the Athenceum forcibly describe the effects of these 

 disturbances : — 



" The phenomena which preceded and have followed the disas- 

 trous earthquake which has struck such a panic throughout this 

 kingdom, have a remarkable and a separate interest from that of 

 the afflicting details of the suffering occasioned by it, as many 

 things occurred to show that before the event there was great 

 subterranean agitation going on. Similar indications of existing 

 agitation now continually manifest themselves. That Vesuvius 

 has been in a state of chronic eruption for nearly two years, and 

 the wells at Eesina for the last few months nearly dried up, I 

 have already noted ; that the kingdom has been in this interval, 

 in various parts, alarmed by minor shocks of earth quake, may not 

 be so generally known, but such is the fact, and to those signs of 

 impending danger the Official Journal of the 30th of December 

 adds the following: — "The Syndic of Salandro (one of the com- 

 munes which has suffered much from the recent scourge) reports 

 that for nearly a month at about two miles distance from the 

 town a gas has been observed to issue from a water-course ; the 

 temperature of it was about that of the sun. A few days since, 

 too, from another similar fosse, the same kind of gas issued. 

 These exhalations were observed only in the morning however ; 

 during the rest of the day they were not perceptible. On the 

 22d of December, they ceased altogether, and there was an ex- 

 pectation that hot mineral springs would burst forth from that 

 spot." The Official Journal of the 2d of January relates another 

 remarkable fact. In the territory of Bella, about two miles from 

 the town, the earthquake on the night of the 16th of December, 

 levelled the neighboring hills, rolled the earth over and over, and 

 formed deep valleys. Half an hour before the shock, a light as 

 bright as that of the moon was seen to hover over the whole 

 country, and a fetid exhalation like sulphur was perceived. On 

 the morning following the shocks, which were accompanied by 



