tc^ 



X^x 



I 



9ua 



ooo 



a 



9crp> 



' Sana 



and 



J 



llO'iVs 



t'en 



8 



a 



^^en-niiie 

 ? ^lie rivet 



er 

 n 



tlie latt 

 ' liad bee 

 1 subsided, 

 »t distance, 

 he hiffliest 

 1 and rent 

 r affordins 

 heir woods 



[itains first 

 ^'rht down 



O 



al hiinJi'eil 

 islands 



I 



ugi 



J, most of 

 i so many 



tte 



i& 



; ou 



■ Sir Hans 



alia soff^ 



lose of ^''; 



J 



iiie 



ectin 



/T 



I 



rcsp 

 table ta^ 



Ch. XXX.] TxEFLECTIOXS ON CHAXGES EY EAETHQUAKES. 



1G3 



similar events of earlier epochs ; altliough^ if the places were 

 noAV examined by geologists well practised in the art of inter- 



monuments of physical 



many 



which have happened within the historical era might doubt- 

 less be still determined with precision. It must not be 

 imagined that, in the above sketch of the occurrences of a 

 short period, I have given an account of all^ or even the 



mutations 



movements. Thus, for 



J 



example, the earthquake of Aleppo, in the present century, 



middle 



numer 



had those catastrophes been described by scientific observers. 

 The shocks in Syria in 1759 were protracted for 

 throughout a space of 10,000 square leagues : 

 pared to which that of the Calabrian earthquake in 1783 was 

 insignificant. Accon, Saphat, Balbeck, Damascus, Sidon, 

 Tripoli, and many other places, were almost entirelv level lor! 



months, 

 an area com- 



to the ground. 



Many 



men 



victims 



In the absence 



of scientific accounts, it would be as irrelevant to our present 



purpose to enter into the details of such calamities 



as 



enumer 



cities burnt or razed to the ground, and reckon the number 



famine 



amount 



extreme 



presume 



aortant must 

 been in the 



convulsed 



some 



civihsed nations ! Towns engulfed during one earthquake 

 may, by repeated shocks, have sunk to great depths beneath 

 the surface, while the ruins remain as imperishable as the 

 hardest rocks in which they are enclosed. Buildings and 



a time, beneath seas or lakes, and 



cities, submer 



sediment a 



y deposits, must, in some places, 

 have been re-elevated to considerable heights above the level 



M 2 



