If the clear water of deep wells sudden ly becomes heated and impregnated with soil, and an unusual stillness of the air prevails, and cattle evince great restless- ness and terror, well founded apprehen sions may be entertained of an approach ing earthquake, which will commence with slight trembling motion, perceiva ble in the most fleshy parts of the body, accompanied by a deep hollow sound, indescribable, yet resembling distant thunder, combined with the roar of nu merous cannons. The most violent and dangerous shocks are undulatory, hori zontal, and perpendicular, the two latter are most dreadful in their consequences, by throwing down the strongest edifices, and making those horrible chasms which engulph every object within their boun daries, emit pestilential vapour, heated water, sand, smoke, and flames : each particular shock seldom exceeds a minute in duration, but they often follow one ano ther with great rapidity.
Such are the indications and peculiari ties attending earthquakes ; the follow ing short narratives of their consequen ces, in different places, will enable the reader, who has happily escaped feeling, to justly understand them.
" There is no part of the world per haps so subject to earthquakes as Peru ; nor any part of Peru more liable to them than Lima and its neighbourhood. On Monday, October 20, 1687, N. S. at 4 o'clock in the morning, there occurred a most horrible earthquake, which threw down some houses, and buried several persons under their ruins. An hour af ter there was another shake, accompa nied with the same noise ; and at six o'clock, when they thought they had been all in safety, came a third shock, with great fury and a rushing noise ; the sea, with hideous roaring, swelled beyond its bounds ; the bells rang of themselves ; and the destruction was so great, that no building was left standing. The noise was so dreadful, says P. Alvarez de To ledo, (who sent the account from thence,) that those in the fields assure us the cat tle were in great astonishment : he adds, Callao, Canete, Pisco, Chaucay, and Los Chorillos, are all ruined : above 5000 dead bodies are already found, and they find more daily." Lima was destroyed in the night of ctober 2$, 1746, the 'anniversary of St. Simon and St. Jude. "According to the best regulated clocks and watches, thii fatal catastrophe befel the place thirty minutes after ten at night ; on this occa sion the destruction did not so much as give time for fright, for at one and the same instant almost, the shock, and the ruin, were perceived together ; so that in the space only of four minutes, during which the greatest force of the earthquake lasted, some persons were buried under the ruins of the falling houses, and others crushed to death in the streets by the tumbling of the walls, which, as they ran here and there, fell upon them. The earth struck against the edifices with such violent percussions, that every shock beat down the greater part of them ; and these tearing along with them vast weights in their fall (espe cially the churches and high houses,) completed the destruction of every thing they encountered with, even of what the earthquake had spared. The shocks, al though instantaneous, were yet succes sive ; and at intervals men were trans ported from one place to another, which was the means of safety to some, whilst the utter impossibility of moving preserv ed others." The second edition of Mr. Swinburne's Travels in the Two Sicilies contains the ensuing most affecting letter, written by a person who witnessed the scenes he de scribed.
" On the 5th of February, at 19 hours and 3 quarters, we felt a shock that be gan by an upward heaving motion, which gave the alarm, and time to most persons to run out of their houses : some fled to the windows and balconies ; others took refuge under the arches of the doors. This upright motion of the earth was soon succeeded by shaking and rocking, dur ing which we beheld our houses tum bling on all sides. The walls and towers
of the castle were split asunder, and over turned upon the town ; the buildings be low were crushed to atoms, and 150 persons perished in this fall. At night a considerable part of the inhabitants, chiefly of the class of sailors, followed the example of the prince, and repaired to the beach ; they there pitched tents, or lay down in their barks, hoping to pass the night in perfect security at a dis tance from all buildings. The sky was bright and serene, the sea lulled in a pro found calm, and all these poor people were indulging in sweet sleep a short re.
ipite from their woes. in this treacher ous state of things, a little after midnight the whole promontory of Campala fell at once into the sea, without any previous earthquake. The sea fled back before this mass towards the Golilla del Faro, where it carried off 28 persons with their boats and houses ; then returning with redoubled fury across its natural channel, flowed on the shore of Sylla 30 palms above its usual level, and three miles along the coast. As it fell back again, it swept away into the abyss 2,475 persons, who were lying on the sands or in boats. Horrible were the shrieks of the survi vors, who happened to be above the reach of the surge, and tremendous was the alarm given over all the surrounding hills, where the remainder of the inhabi tants were dispersed for safety. No cries, no lamentations, were heard from those that were thus hurried off; they had no power or time to utter any."— " The same instant (says Mr. S.) was fatal to the whole province, and the de vastation caused by the repeated shocks was much more terrible in many places than at Scylla ; they raged with fury from Cape Spartivento to Amantea, above the gulph of St. Eufemia, and also affected that part of Sicily which lies opposite to the southern extremity of Italy. Those of the 5th and 7th of February, and of the 28th of March, 1783, were the most violent, and completed the destruction of every building throughout the above mentioned space. Not one stone was left upon another south of the narrow isthmus of Squillace ; and, what is more disastrous, a very large proportion of the inhabitants was killed by the falling of their houses; near 40,000 lives were lost. Some persons were dug out alive, after remaining a surprising length of time buried in the rubbish. Messina became a mass of ruins: its beautiful Falazzatta was thrown in upon the town ; its quay cracked into ditches full of water. Reg gio almost destroyed. Tropea greatly damaged. Every other place I visited in the province levelled to the ground.
"Before and during the concussion the clouds gathered, and then hung im moveable and heavy over the earth. At Palmi the atmosphere wore so fiery an aspect, that many people thought part of the town was burning. It was afterwards remembered, that an unusual heat had affected the skin of several persons just before the shock ; the rivers assumed a muddy, ash-coloured tinge, and a sulphu reous :smell was almost general. A fri gate passing between Calabria and Lips; la felt so severe a shuck, that the steers man was thrown from the helm, and the.. cannons were raised up on their car; riages, while all around the sea exhaled a strong smell of brimstone. Stupendous alterations were occasioned in the face of the country : rivers choaked up by the falling in of the hills were converted into lakes ; whole acres of ground,• with houses and trees upon them, were bro ken off from the plains and washed many furlongs down the deep hollows which the course of the rivers had worn ; there, to the astonishment and terror of behold ers, they found a new foundation to fix upon, either in an upright or an inclining position. In short, every species of phe-, nomenon incident to these destructive commotions of the earth was to be seen,. in its utmost extent and variety, in this ruinated country."