202 
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 ; aud afterwards, about daybreak, so violent an earth- 
quake 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 i-esist 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 Naples, and the utter ignorauce 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 
sufferers 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 
•has lately been 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 
Paris, on the part of the author, M. Barouilier, who has accomplished 
the mincralogical feat in (]ucstiuu by means of an apparatus, extremely 
