* f 8 2 J/> william Hamilton’s Account of 
of the maternal tendernefs of the fex ! The only building 
that remained unhurt at Rofarno was a ftrong built town 
.gaol, in which were three notorious villains, who would pro- 
bably have loll their lives had they been at liberty. After 
having dined in a barrack, the owner of which had lofl five 
of his family by the earthquake, I proceeded to Laureana, 
often eroding the wide extended bed of the river Metauro. 
The environs of Laureana, which hands on an elevation, is 
the garden of Eden itfelf ; nothing I ever law can be com- 
pared to it. The town is confiderable ; but as the earthquake did 
not come on fuddenly, as in the plain, not a life was loft there ; 
but from a fleknefs, cccafioned by hardfhips and fright, 52 have 
died fince. I lodged in the barracks of a fenfible gentleman 
of Mileto, Don Domenico Acquanetta, who is a principal pro- 
prietor of this town. He attended me the next day to the two 
tenements, called the Macini and Vaticano, mentioned in the 
former part of this letter, and which were faid to have changed 
their fituation by the earthquake. The fa<ft is true, and eafily 
accounted for. Thefe tenements were fttuated in a valley fur- 
rounded by high grounds, and the furface of the earth, which 
has been removed, had been probably long undermined by 
little rivulets, which come from the mountains, and now are 
in full view on the bare fpot the tenements had deferted. Thefe 
rivulets have a fufficiently rapid courfe down the valley, 
to prove its not being a perfect level as was reprefented. I fup- 
pofe the earthquake to have opened fome depofitions of rain- 
water in the clay hills which furround the valley, which 
water, mixed with the loofe foil, taking its courfe fuddenly 
'through rhe undermined furface, lifting it up with the large 
olive and mulberry-trees, and a thatched cottage, floated the 
entire piece* of ground, with all its vegetation, about a mile 
down 
