20.2 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



And now to return to the fearful Italian earthquakes. The volcanic 

 disturbances in Naples do not appear to have entirely ceased. At 

 Montemurro three shocks were felt immediately before dawn on the 

 26th of February; and afterwards, about daybreak, so violent an earth- 

 ouake took place, that the inhabitants fled, with cries and tears, from 

 their beds into the open country, and were still more alarmed when they 

 learnt from some peasants that the ground had been seen to open and 

 close again at each shock. 



At the same time, a severe commotion was experienced in Viggiano, 

 where some walls fell, without doing further injury. Belvano, also, on 

 the 23rd, was shaken, but rather less severely ; and, on the same day, 

 towards night, the inhabitants of Saponara heard, at an interval of 

 thirty seconds, two subterraneous noises, resembling the reports of a 

 very large piece of cannon. At the trembling of the ground, the ter- 

 rified inhabitants fled from their houses, and gathered together for 

 prayers in a chapel. Other slight shocks have since been felt in many 

 places of the Basilicata, not excepting Potenza, so fearfully shaken by 

 the former commotions. We cannot resist noting down here two 

 striking features of the human character, which the late earthquakes in 

 Italy have enabled certain persons to observe. In spite of the apparent 

 violence of the phenomenon in I^'aples, and the utter ignorance that 

 prevailed as to what might be the dreadful and immediate consequences, 

 bands of thieves entered the houses deserted by the frightened tenants, 

 and ran off with everything they could lay their hands upon. Indeed, 

 some of the Italian papers assure us, that greater loss was sustained in 

 Naples by these robberies than by the earthquake itself. Does not 

 this fact tempt us to exclaim, " Man's greatest enemy is man ?" But 

 the same papers report (and we notice it with pride and pleasure), that 

 the promptest and most generous succour proffered to the unfortunate 

 sufl-erers from the earthquake and its effects, came from the English 

 residents at Naples, who immediately subscribed large sums of money, 

 to be distributed among their distressed fellow-creatures. 



We will now call attention to an ingenious method by which coal 

 h;\s lately bceu produced artificially, and, as far as we know, for the 

 first time. The experiment to which we are about to refer formed the 

 subject of a recent communication to the Academy of Sciences at 

 Vans, on the part of the author, M. Barouilier, who has accomplished 

 the mincralogical feat in question by means of an apparatus, extremely 



