with violence to its former position, the water was thrown up in jets through fissures.*

Formation of circular hollows.-In the report of the Academy, we find that some plains were covered with circular hollows, for the most part about the size of carriage-wheels, but often somewhat larger or smaller. When filled with water to within a foot or two of the surface, they appeared like wells; but, in general, they were filled with dry sand, sometimes with a concave surface, and at other times convex. (See Fig. 53, p. 407.) On digging down, they found them to be funnel-shaped, and the moist loose sand in the centre marked the tube up which the water spouted. The annexed cut (Fig. 54.) represents a section of one of these inverted cones when the water had disappeared, and nothing but dry micaceous sand remained.

Section of one of the circular hollows formed in the plain of Rosarno.

Fall of the sea cliffs.-Along the sea-coast of the Straits of Messina, near the celebrated rock of Scilla, the fall of huge masses detached from the bold and lofty cliffs overwhelmed many villas and gardens. At Gian Greco a continuous line of cliff, for a mile in length, was thrown down. Great agitation was frequently observed in the bed of the sea during the shocks, and, on those parts of the coast where the movement was most violent, all kinds of fish were taken in abundance, and with unusual facility. Some rare species, as that called Cicirelli, which usually lie buried in the sand, were taken on the surface of the waters in great quantity. The sea is said to have boiled up near Messina, and to have been agitated as if by a copious discharge of vapours from its bottom.

Shore near Scilla inundated.-The Prince of Scilla had persuaded a great part of his vassals to betake themselves to their fishing-boats for safety, and he himself had gone on board. On the night of the 5th of February, when some of the people were sleeping in the boats, and others on a level plain slightly elevated above the sea, the earth rocked, and

suddenly a great mass was torn from the contiguous Mount Jaci, and thrown down with a dreadful crash upon the plain. Immediately afterwards, the sea, rising more than twenty feet above the level of this low tract, rolled foaming over it, and swept away the multitude. It then retreated, but soon rushed back again with greater violence, bringing with it some of the people and animals it had carried away. At the same time every boat was sunk or dashed against the beach, and some of them were swept far inland. The aged Prince, with 1430 of his people, was destroyed.

State of Stromboli and Etna during the shocks.-The inhabitants of Pizzo remarked that, on the 5th of February, 1783, when the first great shock afflicted Calabria, the volcano of Stromboli, which is in full view of that town, and at the distance of about fifty miles, smoked less, and threw up a less quantity of inflamed matter, than it had done for some years previously. On the other hand, the great crater of Etna is said to have given out a considerable quantity of vapour towards the beginning, and Stromboli towards the close, of the commotions. But as no eruption happened from either of these great vents during the whole earthquake, the sources of the Calabrian convulsions, and of the volcanic fires of Etna and Stromboli, appear to be very independent of each other; unless, indeed, they have the same mutual relation as Vesuvius and the volcanos of the Phlegræan Fields and Ischia, a violent disturbance in one district serving as a safety-valve to the other, and both never being in full activity

at once.

Excavations of valleys.—It is impossible for the geologist to consider attentively the effect of this single earthquake of 1783, and to look forward to the alterations in the physical condition of the country to which a continued series of such movements will hereafter give rise, without perceiving that the formation of valleys by running water can never be understood, if we consider the question independently of the agency of earthquakes. It must not be imagined that rivers only begin to act when a country is already elevated far above the level of the sea, for their action must of necessity be most powerful while land is rising or sinking by successive movements. Whether Calabria is now undergoing any considerable change of relative level, in regard to the sea, or is, upon the whole, nearly stationary, is a question which our observations, confined almost entirely to the last half century, cannot possibly enable us to determine. But we know that strata, containing species of shells identical with those now living in the contiguous parts of the Mediterranean, have been raised in that country, as they have in Sicily, to the height of several thousand feet.

Now, those geologists who grant that the present course of Nature in the inanimate world, has continued the same since the existing species of animals were in being, will not feel surprise that the Calabrian streams VOL. I.-3 B

and rivers have cut out of such comparatively modern strata a great system of valleys, varying in depth from fifty to six hundred feet, and often several miles wide, if they consider how numerous must have been the earthquakes which lifted those recent marine strata to so prodigious a height. Some speculators, indeed, who disregard the analogy of existing Nature, and who are always ready to assume that her forces were more energetic in by-gone ages, may dispense with a long series of movements, and suppose that Calabria "rose like an exhalation" from the deep, after the manner of Milton's Pandemonium. But such an hypothesis would deprive them of that peculiar removing force required to form a regular system of deep and wide valleys; for time, which they are so unwilling to assume, is essential to the operation. Time must be allowed in the intervals between distinct convulsions, for running water to clear away the ruins caused by landslips, otherwise the fallen masses will serve as buttresses, and prevent the succeeding earthquake from exerting its full power. The sides of the valley must be again cut away by the stream, and made to form precipices and overhanging cliffs, before the next shock can take effect in the same manner.

Possibly the direction of the succeeding shock may not coincide with that of the valley, a great extent of adjacent country being equally shaken. Still it will usually happen that no permanent geographical change will be produced except in valleys. In them alone will occur landslips from the boundary cliffs, and these will frequently divert the stream from its accustomed course, causing the original ravine to become both wider and more tortuous in its direction.

If a single convulsion of extreme violence should agitate at once an entire hydrographical basin, or if the shocks should follow each other too rapidly, the previously existing valleys would be annihilated, instead of being modified and enlarged. Every stream might in that case be compelled to begin its operations anew, and to shape out new channels, instead of continuing to deepen and widen those already excavated. But if the subterranean movements have been intermittent; and if sufficient periods have always intervened between the severer shocks to allow the drainage of the country to be nearly restored to its original state, then are both the kind and degree of force supplied by which running water may hollow out valleys of any depth or size consistent with the elevation above the sea which the districts drained by them may have attained.

When we read of the drying up and desertion of the channels of rivers, the accounts most frequently refer to their deflection into some other part of the same alluvial plain, perhaps several miles distant. Under certain circumstances, a change of level may undoubtedly force the water to flow over into some distinct hydrographical basin; but even then it will fall immediately into some other system of valleys already formed.

We learn from history that, ever since the first Greek colonists settled in Calabria, that region has been subject to devastation by earthquakes;

and, for the last century and a-half, ten years have seldom elapsed without a shock: but the severer convulsions have not only been separated by intervals of twenty, fifty, or one hundred years, but have not affected precisely the same points when they recurred. Thus the earthquake of 1783, although confined within the same geographical limits as that of 1638, and not very inferior in violence, visited, according to Grimaldi, very different districts. The points where the local intensity of the force is developed being thus perpetually varied, more time is allowed for the removal of separate mountain masses thrown into river channels by each shock.

When chasms and deep hollows open at the bottom of valleys, they must often be filled with those "mud lavas" before described; and these must be extremely analagous to the enormous ancient deposits of mud which are seen in many countries, as in the basin of the Tay, Isla, and North Esk rivers, for example, in Scotland-alluvions hundreds of feet thick, which are neither stratified nor laminated like the ordinary sediment which subsides from water. Whenever a landslip blocks up a river, these currents of mud will be arrested, and accumulate to an enormous depth.

The portion of the Calabrian valleys formed within the last three thousand years may be inconsiderable in amount, compared to that previously formed, just as the lavas which have flowed from Etna since the historical era constitute but a small proportion of the whole cone. But as

a continued series of such eruptions as man has witnessed would reproduce another cone like Etna, so a sufficient number of earthquakes like that of 1783 would enable torrents and rivers to re-excavate all the Calabrian valleys, if they were now to be entirely obliterated. It must be evident that more change is effected in two centuries in the width and depth of the valleys of that region, than in many thousand years in a country as undisturbed by earthquakes as Great Britain. For the same reason, therefore, that he who desises to comprehend the volcanic phenomena of Central France will repair to Vesuvius, Etna, or Hecla, so they who aspire to explain the mode in which valleys are formed, must visit countries where earthquakes are of frequent occurrenee. For we may be assured, that the power which uplifted our more ancient tertiary strata of marine origin to more than a thousand feet above the level of the sea, co-operated at some former epoch with the force of rivers in the removal of large portions of rock and soil, just as the elevatory power which has upraised new strata to the height of several thousand feet in the south of Italy has caused those formations to be already intersected by deep valleys and ravines.

Number of persons who perished during the earthquake.-The number of persons who perished during the earthquake in the two Calabrias and Sicily is estimated by Hamilton at about forty thousand, and about

twenty thousand more died by epidemics, which were caused by insufficient nourishment, exposure to the atmosphere, and malaria, arising from the new stagnant lakes and pools.

By far the greater number were buried under the ruins of their houses; but many were burnt to death in the conflagrations which almost invariably followed the shocks. These fires raged the more violently in some cities, such as Oppido, from the immense magazines of oil which were consumed.

Many persons were engulfed in deep fissures, especially the peasants, when flying across the open country, and their skeletons may perhaps be buried in the earth to this day, at the depth of several hundred feet.

When Dolomieu visited Messina after the shock of February 5th, he describes the city as still presenting, at least at a distance, an imperfect image of its ancient splendour. Every house was injured, but the walls were standing: the whole population had taken refuge in wooden huts in the neighbourhood, and all was solitude and silence in the streets: it seemed as if the city had been desolated by the plague, and the impression made upon his feelings was that of melancholy and sadness. "But when I passed over to Calabria, and first beheld Polistena, the scene of horror almost deprived me of my faculties; my mind was filled with mingled compassion and terror; nothing had escaped; all was levelled with the dust; not a single house or piece of wall remained; on all sides were heaps of stone so destitute of form, that they gave no conception of there ever having been a town on the spot. The stench of the dead bodies still rose from the ruins. I conversed with many persons who had been buried for three, four, and even for five days; I questioned them respecting their sensations in so dreadful a situation, and they agreed that, of all the physical evils they endured, thirst was the most intolerable; and that their mental agony was increased by the idea that they were abandoned by their friends, who might have rendered them assist

It is supposed that about a fourth part of the inhabitants of Polistena, and of some other towns, were buried alive, and might have been saved had there been no want of hands; but in so general a calamity, where each was occupied with his own misfortunes, or those of his family, aid could rarely be obtained. Neither tears, nor supplications, nor promises of high rewards, were listened to. Many acts of self-devotion, prompted by parental and conjugal tenderness, or by friendship, or the gratitude of faithful servants, are recorded; but individual exertions were, for the most part, ineffectual. It frequently happened, that persons in search of those most dear to them could hear their moans,-could recognise their

* Dissertation on the Calabrian Earthquake, &c., translated in Pinkerton's Voyages and Travels, vol. v.