194 S/r william Hamilton’s Account of 
in proportion as the heats increafe, owing to the hardlhips buf- 
fered, and the air having been Ipoiled by new-formed lakes. 
Several filhermen ah'u red me, that during the earthquake 
of the 5th of February at night, the band near the bea was 
hot, and that they law fire iflue from the earth in many parts. 
This circumftance has been often repeated to me in the plain ; 
and my idea is, that the exhalations which iftued during the 
violent commotions of the earth were full of electrical fire, 
juft as the bmoke of volcanoes is conftantly oblerved to be 
during violent eruptions ; for I law no mark, in any part of 
my journey, of any volcanic matter having ifl'ued from the 
fifth res of the earth ; and I am convinced, that the whole 
damage has been done by exhalations and vapours only. The 
firft bhock felt at this place, as I was afihred, was lateral, and 
then vorticobe, and exceedingly violent ; but what they call 
violent here, muft have been nothing in companion of what was 
felt in the plain of Caba Nuova, Poliftene, Palmi, Terra 
Nuova, Oppido, &c. &c. where all agreed in alluring me, that 
the violence of the fatal bhock of the 5th of February was in— 
ftantaneous, without warning, and from the bottom upwards ; 
and indeed in thobe places, where the mortality has been bo 
great, and where nothing is to be been but a confubcd heap of 
ruins, without diftindtion of either ftreets or houbes, the vio- 
lence of that bhock is fufficiently confirmed. From this place 
to Reggio the road on each fide is covered with villas and orange 
groves. I baw not one hoube levelled to the ground ; but per- 
. ceived that all had been damaged, and were abandoned ; and 
that the inhabitants were univerbally retired to barracks in thebe 
beautiful groves of orange, mulberry, and fig-trees, of which 
there are many in the environs of Reggio. One that 1 vilited, and 
which is reckoned the richeft in all this part of Magna Grecia, is 
about a mile and a half from the town of Reggio, and what 
