213 
EARTHQUAKE. 
inhabitant of Cafal Nuova was at that moment on a hill 
overlooking the plain ; when, feeling the (hock, and 
turning round, inftead of the town lie faw only a thick 
cloud of white dull like fmoke, the natural effect of the 
crufhing of the buildings and the mortar flying off. 
The town of Cafal Nuova was fo effectually deflroyed 
by this dreadful ihock, that neither veftige of houfe or 
flreet remained, but all lay in one confufed heap of ruins. 
Caftillace and Milicufco, which fir William next vilited, 
were both in the fame fituation. Terra Nuova, fituated 
in the fame plain, flood between two rivers, which, with 
the torrents from the mountains, had in the courfe of 
ages, cut deep and wide chafms in the foft fandy clay 
foil of which it is compofed. At Terra Nuova, the ravine 
orchafm is not lefs than 500 feet deep, and three quarters 
of a mile broad. Here the accounts of the earthquake 
were confufed, by not having the fituation of the place 
and nature of the foil explained. It was faid, that a 
town had been thrown a mile from the place on which it 
flood, without mentioning a word of the ravine ; that 
woods and corn-fields had been removed in the fame man¬ 
ner, “ when in truth (fays our author) it was but upon 
a large fcale, what we fee every day upon a fmaller ; 
when pieces of the fides of hollow ways, having been 
undermined by rain waters, are detached by their own 
weight. Here, from the great depth of the ravine, and 
the violent motion of the earth, two huge portions of 
the latter, on which a great part of the town flood, 
which confided of fome hundred hoitfes, had been de¬ 
tached into the ravine, and nearly acrofs it, at about the 
didance of half a mile from the place where they formerly 
flood ; and what is very extraordinary, many of the in¬ 
habitants who had taken this fingular leap in their houfes, 
were neverthelefs dug out alive, and fome unhurt.” Our 
author’s guide there, who was both a pried and pliyfi- 
cian, having been buried in the ruins of his houfe by the 
fird fliock, was blown out of it and delivered by the fe- 
cond, which immediately followed the fird ; and there 
were many well atteded indances of the fame thing hav¬ 
ing happened in different parts of Calabria. At Terra 
Nuova, however, only 400 out of 1600 inhabitants were 
left alive. 
In other parts of the plain, fituated near the ravine, 
and near the tow'n of Terra Nuova, our author faw many 
acres of land, with trees and corn-fields, that had been 
detached into the ravine, frequently without having been 
overturned ; fo that the crops were growing as well as if 
they had been planted there. Other fuch pieces were 
lying in the bottom in an inclined fituation ; and others 
againthat had been quite overturned. In one place, two 
of thefe immenfe pieces of land having been detached, 
oppofite to one another, had filled the valley, and hop¬ 
ped the courfe of the river, the waters of which were 
forming a great lake ; “ and this (fays fir William) is the 
true date of what the accounts mention of mountains 
that had walked, and joined together, hopped the courfe 
,of a river, and formed a lake.” At the moment of the 
earthquake the river difappeared; but, returning foon 
after, it overflowed the bottom of the ravine about three 
feet in depth ; fo that the poor people who had been 
thrown with their houfes into the ravine from the top of 
it, and had efcaped with broken bones, were now in dan¬ 
ger of being drowned. The whole town of Mollochi di 
Sotto was likewife detached into the ravine, and a vine¬ 
yard of many acres lay near it in the bottom in perfect 
order, but in an inclined fituation. There was a foot¬ 
path through this vineyard which had a lingular effecl in 
its then impradlicable fituation. Some water-mills which 
were on the river, being jammed between two fuch de¬ 
tached pieces as above-deferibed, were lifted up by them, 
and were then to be feen on an elevatgd fituation many 
feet above the level of the river. In feveral parts of 
the plain, the foil, with timber-trees and crops of corn, 
conmling.of many acres, had funk eight and ten feet be. 
low the level of the plain, and rifen as many in other 
places. To explain this, it is necefiary to remark, that the 
Voi. VI. No, 343, 
foil of the plain is a clay mixed with fand, which iseafily 
moulded into any fliape. In the plain, near the fpots 
where the above-mentioned pieces had been detached 
into the ravine, there were feveral parallel cracks; lo 
that, had the violence of the earthquake continued, thefa 
pieces would alfo probably have followed. It was con- 
flantly obferved, that near every ravine or hollow way, 
the parts of the plain adjoining w ere full of large parallel 
cracks. The earth rocking from fide to fide, and being 
fupported only on one fide, accounts very well for this cir- 
cumftance. 
From Terra Nuova, fir William continued his journey 
to Oppido. This city (lands on a mountain of a ferru¬ 
ginous fort of gritty (lone, unlike the clay (oil of its 
neighbourhood : and is furrounded by two rivers in a ra¬ 
vine deeper and broader than that at Terra Nuova. Here, 
a countryman, who was ploughing his field with a pair 
of oxen, was tranfported with his field and team clear 
from one fide of the ravine to the other, and neither he 
nor his oxen were hurt.—“ Having walked over the ruins 
of Oppido (fays our author), 1 defeended into the ravine, 
and examined carefully the whole of it. Here I faw in¬ 
deed the wonderful force of the earthquake, which has 
produced exactly the fame effedts as thofe deferibed in 
the ravine at Terra Nuova, but on a fcale infinitely 
greater. The enormous mailes of the plain, detached 
from each fide of the ravine, lie fometimes in confufed 
heaps, forming real mountains, and having flopped the 
courfe of two rivers (one of which is very confiderable) 
great lakes were already formed. Sometimes I met with 
a detached piece of the furface of the plain of many 
acres in extent, with the large oaks and olive-trees, with 
corn or lupins under them, growing as well and in as 
good order at the bottom of the ravine as their compa¬ 
nions from w hence they were-feparated do on their native 
foil, at lead 500 feet higher, and at the diftance of about 
three quarters of a mile. I met wdth wdiole vineyards in 
the fame order in the bottom, that had likew ife taken the 
fame journey. As the banks of the ravine from whence 
thefe pieces came are now bare and perpendicular, I per¬ 
ceived that the upper foil was a reddifli earth, and the 
under one a fandy white clay, very compact, and like a 
foft (lone. The impulfe thefe huge maffes received, 
either from the violent motion of the earth alone, or that 
aflifted with the additional one of the volcanic exhala¬ 
tions fet at liberty, feems to have added with greater 
force on the lower and more compadl ftratum than on the 
upper cultivated cruft : for I conftantly obferved, w here 
thefe cultivated lands lay, the under ftratum of compadl 
clay had been driven fome hundred yards farther, and lay 
in confufed blocks ; and, as I obferved, many of thefe 
blocks were in a cubical form. The under foil, having 
had a greater impulfe, and leaving the upper in its flight, 
naturally accounts for the order in which the trees, vine¬ 
yards,. and vegetation, fell, and remain at prefent in the 
bottom of the ravine.” 
From Oppido fir William proceeded to the towns of 
Seniinara and Palrni. The former, being (ituated higher 
up, had fullered lefs than Palmi, which flood nearer the 
fea. Fourteen hundred lives were loll at this place, and 
fome fingular circumftances occurred. The town being a 
great market for oil, there were upwards of 4000 barrels 
of that liquid in it at the time of its deftrudlion ; fo that 
by the breaking of thefe barrels and jars, a rivulet of oil 
ran from the ruins for many hours into the fea. Here our 
author w’as informed by the perfon who conducted him, 
that lie had been buried in the ruins of his houfe by the 
fird fliock ; and that after the (econd, which followed 
immediately, he found himfelf fitting aflride a beam at 
lead fifteen feet high in the air. After fir William’s de¬ 
parture from Palmi, in going through one of the narrow 
pafies among the mountains of Bagnara and Solano, he 
felt a very (mart (flock of an earthquake, attended with a 
loud explofion like that of fpringing a mine j but fortu¬ 
nately it did not detach any rocks or trees from the high 
mountains which hung over their heads. In this cutm- 
