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different Nations which rushed to the rescue, and have been carried 

 off to Naples, Malta, Palermo, or Genoa, and the remainder were 

 for a long time unable to shake themselves free from the lethargy 

 in which the sudden stroke of nameless ill-fortune had plunged them. 



Thus the manufacture of bergamot oil came to a sudden end, even 

 before it had reached its full development. 



The dreadful earthquake shocks caused large quantities of the 

 fruit to fall to the ground; this has mostly been left to rpt unused. 

 At certain points on the coast line, especially at Pellaro and Lazzaro, 

 the sea broke upon the shore in waves as high as houses, tearing 

 away trees, fruit, men, and beasts. Hence, part of the fruit on the 

 trees has been destroyed before oil could be pressed from it. 



While thus, with the exception of a few places, mental torpor 

 and lethargy prevailed all along the Calabrian coast, business men 

 had flocked to the spot from all countries of Europe, but especially 

 from France, intent upon securing their requirements of bergamot oil 

 for the season. Braving considerable privations and dangers, these 

 men penetrated even into the smallest villages, buying up almost at 

 any price every drop of bergamot oil upon which they could lay hands. 



This fact again stirred up the dulled spirits of the unhappy people 

 of Southern Calabria, and rendered them accessible once more to 

 human emotions. Where up to the present they had only beheld 

 and mourned death and destruction, the possibility of making good 

 at any rate a portion of their losses again presented itself. The high 

 prices which were paid for the oil by the foreign visitors induced the 

 manufacturers to dig up their pressing-apparatus from the ruins; the 

 labourers to start work again at double or treble their old wages. 

 It is true that owing to scarcity of hands the work could only proceed 

 very slowly and on a small scale, but nevertheless oil was produced, 

 and will continue to be produced until the fruit falls rotten from the 

 trees, and so long as the oil content leaves a profit on the cost of 

 manufacture. 



It is of course impossible at the present time to obtain reliable data 

 anywhere, yet I believe that I shall not be far from wrong if I estimate 

 this season's output of bergamot oil at barely one half of the quantity 

 produced under normal conditions. 



From the particulars set forth above the following conclusions may 

 perhaps be drawn: — 



Bergamot Oil, If indications go for anything, this oil should 

 attain a high price this year, but this, of course, is also contingent 

 upon the greater or less intensity of the demand from abroad during 

 the next few months. The conditions of price of the article during 

 the later months of the year will depend upon whether the fears will 



