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agitate the affrighted minds of the inhabitants ⟨of⟩ Calabria and Sicily, but the principal miſchief aroſe in the months of February and March in ⟨the⟩ firſt year. For ſeveral months the earth continued in an unceaſing tremor, which at certain intervals increaſed to violent ſhocks, ſome of which were beyond deſcription dreadful. Theſe shocks were ſometimes horizontal, whirling like a vortex; and ſometimes by pulſations or beating from the bottom upwards and were at times ſo violent that the heads of the largeſt trees almoſt touched the ground on either ſide. The rains, during a great part of the time were continual and violent, often accompanied with lightning, and furious guſts of wind. All that part of Calabria, which lay between the 38th and 39th degrees, aſſumed new appearance. Houſes, churches, towns, cities, and villages, were buried in one promiſcuous ruin. Mountains were detached from their foundations, and carried to a conſiderable diſtance. Rivers diſappeared from their beds, and again returned and overflowed the adjacent country. Screams of water ſuddenly guſhed out of the ground and ſprang to a conſiderable height. Large pieces of the ſurface of the plain, ſeveral acres in extent were carried five hundred feet from their former ſituation down into the bed of the river, and left ſtanding at nearly the diſtance of a mile, ſurrounded by large plantations of olives and mulberry trees and corn growing as well upon them as upon the ground from which they were ſeparated. Amidſt theſe ſcenes of devaſtation, the eſcapes of ſome of the unhappy ſufferers is extremely wonderful. Some of the inhabitants of houſes which were thrown to a conſiderable diſtance, were dug out from their ruins unhurt. But theſe inſtances were few, and thoſe who were ſo fortunate as to preſerve their lives in ſuch ſituations, were content to purchaſe exiſtence
