Part V[. 
natural curiosities, 
&Q. 
AnsOIlPTION OF THE Eartii. 
Kirch ER, and other geologists, use this phrase to denote the swal- 
lowing up of great portions of land by earthquakes, and other subter- 
raneous convulsions or accidents. Several instances of these alarm- 
ing commotions have occurred in various countries. The mountain 
of Cyml)otus, and the town of Curites seated on its declivity ; the 
city of Tantalis, in Magnesia ; the njountain Sypilus ; Galanis and 
Garnates, two Phoenician towns; the promontory of Phegium, in 
Ethiopia; the mountain Picus, and several others — are mentioned as 
having sunk into the earth at different times. Later instances have 
occurred in China, France, and Switzerland. 
A mountain belonging to the chain of the Cevennes, in the south of 
France, was precipitated, with an awful crash, into the valley below, 
on June 23, 1727 ; one block of stone, ninety feet long, and twenty-six 
in diameter, sunk vertically ; and the village of Pradines, situated on 
the declivity, being overwhelmed by the rocky fragments, its inhabi- 
tants were only saved from destruction in consequence of having gone 
to some distance to celebrate Mid summer -eve. 
To these and other instances of absorption, which might be men- 
tioned, may be subjoined a circumstance w hich occurred on September 
3, 1806, at Schweitz, a canton in Switzerland. Between the lakes of 
Zug and Lowertz, and the mountains of Rosenberg and Rossi, lay a 
beautiful valley, overspread with several pleasant villages. About 
five o’clock in the evening of September 3, the Spitzberg, or north- 
east projection of the mountain Ptosenberg, fell into the valley, from 
the height of tw'O thousand feet, and overwhelmed' the villages of 
Goldau, Busingen, and Rathlen, and a part of Low^ertz and of Obe- 
rart. The earth and stones rushed like lava into the valley, and 
covered more than three square miles of a fertile vicinity ; filling up, 
at the same time, nearly a fifth of the lake Lowertz. The immense 
swell of the water which immediately took place, submerged two inha- 
bited islands, and the village of Leven on the northern extremity ; 
by which accident, between fifteen hundred and two thousand inha- 
bitants perished. The most probable cause to be assigned of this 
dread fill calamity, was the sinking in of the earth which supported 
the base of the Spitzberg. 
Moving Earth. 
In July, 1823, at the Waen Wem lime rocks, near Llanymynech, 
the inhabitants of the neighbourhood were surprised to find that, dur- 
