marked, the fhock in the unhappy plain was as inftantaneous as it was violent and deftructive. Every building was levelled to the ground, and the mortality was general, and in proportion to the apparent deftruction of the buildings. Reggio was deftroyed by an earthquake before the Marfian war, and having been rebuilt by Julius Cæfar, was called Reggio Julio. Part of the wall fill remains, and is called the Julian Tower; it is built of huge maffes of ftone without cement. Near St. Peruto, between Reggio and Cape Spartivento, there are the remains of a foundery; his prefent Catholic Majefty, when King of Naples, having worked filver mines in that neighbourhood, which were foon aban doned, the profit not having anfwered the expence. There are fome towns in the neighbourhood of Reggio that ftill retain the Greek language. About fifteen years ago, when I made the tour of Sicily, I landed at Spartivento in Calabria Ultra, and went to Bova, where I found that Greek was the only language in ufe in that district. On the 14th of May I left Reggio, and was obliged (the wind being contrary) to have my boats towed by oxen to the Punta del Pezzolo, oppofite Meffina, from whence the current wafted us with great expedition indeed into the port of Meffina. The port and the town, in it's half-ruined state, by moon-light, was ftrikingly picturefque. Certain it is, that the force of the earthquake (though very violent) was nothing at Meflina and Reggio to what it was in the plain. I vifited the town of Meflina the next morning, and found that all the beautiful front of what is called the Palazzata, which extended in very lofty uniform buildings, in the fhape of a crefcent, had been in some parts totally ruined, in others lefs; and that there were cracks in the earth of the quay, a part of which had funk above a foot below the level of the fea. Thefe cracks were probably occafioned by the horizontal

motion of the earth, in the fame manner as the pieces of the plain were detached into the ravines at Oppido and Terra Nuova; for the fea at the edge of the quay is fo very deep, that the largest hips can lie alongfide; confequently the earth, in it's violent commotion, wanting fupport on the fide next the fea, began to crack and feparate; and as where there is one crack there are generally others lefs confiderable in parallel lines to the firft, I fuppofe the great damage done to the houfes nearest the quay has been owing to fuch cracks under their foundations. Many houfes are ftill ftanding, and fome little damaged, even in the lower part of Meffina; but in the upper and more elevated fituations, the earthquakes feem to have had fcarcely any effect, as I particularly remarked. A strong inftance of the force of the earthquake having been many degrees lefs here than in the plain of Calabria, is, that the convent of Sante Barbara, and that called the Noviziato de Gefuiti, both on an elevated fituation, have not a crack in them, and that the clock of the latter has not been deranged in the leaft by the earthquakes that have afflicted this country for four months paft, and which ftill continue in fome degree. Befides, the mortality at Meffina does not exceed 700 out of upwards of 30,000, the fuppofed population of this city at the time of the first earthquake, which circumftance is conclufive. I found that fome houses, nay a fireet or two, at Meffina, were inhabited, and fome 'fhops open in them; but the generality of the inhabitants are in tents and barracks, which, having been placed in three or four different quarters, in fields and open fpots near the town, but at a great distance one from the other, must be very inconvenient for a mercantile town; and, unlefs great care is taken to keep the streets of the barracks, and the barracks themfelves, clean, I fear that the unfortu nate Meffina will be doomed to fuffer a fresh calamity from epidemical dif

orders

orders during the heat of fummer. Indeed, many parts of the plain of Calabria feem to be in the fame alarming fituation, particularly owing to the lakes which are forming from the courfe of rivers having been stopped, fome of which, as I faw myfelf, were already green, and tending to putrefaction. I could not help remark ing here, that the nuns, who likewife live in barracks, were conftantly walking about, under the tuition of their confeffor, and feemed gay, and to enjoy the liberty the earthquake had afforded them, and I made the fame obfervation with refpect to fchool-boys at Reggio; fo that in my journal, which I wrote in hafte, and from whence I have as haftily tranfcribed the imperfect account I fend you, the remark ftands thus: Earthquakes particularly pleafing to nuns and fchool-boys.' Out of the cracks on the quay, it is faid that, during the earthquakes, fire had been feen to iffue, (as many I fpoke with attested;) but there are no vifible figns of it, and I am perfuaded it was no more than, as in Calabria, a vapour charged with electrical fire, or a kind of inflammable air. A curious circumftance happened here alfo, to prove that animals can remain long alive without food: two mules beJonging to the Duke of Belvifo remained under a heap of ruins, one of them twenty-two, and the other twenty-three days; they would not eat for fome days, but drank water plentifully, and are now quite recovered. There are numberless instances of dogs remaining many days in the fame fituation; and a hen belonging to the British vice-conful at Meffina, that had been clofely fhut up under the ruins of his houfe, was taken out the twenty-fecond day, and is now recovered; he did not eat for fome days, but drank freely; fhe was ema. ciated, and fhewed little figns of life, at first. From thefe inftances, from thofe related before of the girls at Oppido, and the hogs at Soriano, and from feveral others of the fame kind that have been related to me,

3

but which, being lefs remarkable, I omit, one may conclude that long fafting is always attended with great thirft, and total lofs of appetite. From every enquiry I found that the great fhock of the 5th of February was from the bottom upwards, and not like the fubfequent ones, which in general have been horizontal and vorticofe. A circumftance worth remarking (and which was the fame on the whole coast of that part of Calabria that had been most affected by the earthquake) is, that a small fish called cicirelli, refembling what we call in England white-bait, but of a greater fize, and which ufually lie at the bottom of the fea, buried in the fand, have been ever fince the commencement of the earthquakes, and continue ftill to be, taken near the furface, and in fuch abundance as to be the common food of the pooreft fort of people; whereas, before the earthquakes, this fish was rare, and reckoned amongst the greatest delicacies. All fish in general have been taken in greater abundance, and with much greater facility, in thofe parts, fince they have been afflicted by earthquakes, than before. I constantly afked every fisherman I met with on the coast of Sicily and Calabria, if this circumstance was true, and was as conftantly answered in the affirmative; but with fuch emphasis, that it must have been very extraor dinary. I fuppofe, that either the fand at the bottom of the fea may have been heated by the volcanic fire under it, or that the continual tremor of the earth has driven the fish out of their ftrong holds, just as an angler, when he wants a bait, obliges the worms to come out of the turf on a river-fide by trampling on it with his feet, which motion never fails in it's effect, as I have experienced very often myfelf. I found the citadel here had not received any material damage, but was in the fame state as I had left it fifteen years ago. lazaret has fome cracks in it like thofe on the quay, and from a like caufe. The port has not received any da

The

mage

mage from the earthquakes. The officer who commanded in the citadel, and who was there during the earthquake, affured me, that on the fatal 5th of February, and the three following days, the fea, about a quarter of a mile from that fortrefs, rofe and boiled in a moft extraordinary manner, and with a moft horrid and alarming noise, the water in the other parts of the Faro being perfectly calm. This feems to point out exhalations of eruptions from cracks at the bottom of the fea, which may very probably have happened during the violence of the earthquakes; all of which, I am convinced, have here a volcanic origin.

On the 17th of May I left Meffina, where I had been kindly and hofpitably treated, and proceeded in my fperonara along the Sicilian coaft to the point of the entrance of the Faro, where I went afhore, and found a priest who had been there the night between the 5th and 6th of February, when the great wave paffed over that point, carried off boats, and above twenty-four unhappy people, tearing up trees, and leaving fome hundred weight of fish it had brought with it on the dry land. He told me he had been himself covered with the wave, and with difficulty faved his life. He at firft faid the water was hot; but, as I was curious to come at the truth of this fact, which would have concluded much, I asked him if he was fure of it: and, being preffed, it came to be no more than the water having been as warm as it ufually is in fummer. He faid the wave rofe to a great height, and came on with noife, and fuch rapidity, that it was impoffible to efcape. The tower on the point was half deftroyed, and a poor priest that was in it loft his life, From hence I croffed over to Scilla. Having met with my friend the Padre Minafi, a Dominican Friar, a worthy man, and an able naturalift, who is a native of Scilla, and is actually employed by the Academy of Naples to give a defcription of the phenomena that have attended

the earthquake in these parts, with his affiftance on the fpot, I perfectly understood the nature of the formi dable wave that was faid to have been boiling-hot, and had certainly proved fatal to the baron of the country, the Prince of Scilla, who was fwept off the fhore into the fea by this wave, with 2473 of his unfortu nate fubjects. The following is the fact: the Prince of Scilla having re marked, that during the first horrid fhock, (which happened about noon the 5th of February) part of a rock near Scilla had been detached into the fea, and fearing that the rock of Scilla, on which his castle and town is fituated, might alfo be detached, thought it fafer to prepare boats, and retire to a little port or beach furrounded by rocks at the foot of the rock. The fecond fhock of the earthquake, after midnight, detached a whole mountain, (much higher than that of Scilla, and partly calcareous, and partly cretaceous) fituated between the Torre del Cavallo, and the rock of Scilla. This having fallen with violence into the fea, (at that time perfectly calm) raised the fatal wave, which I have above defcribed to have broken upon the neck of land, called the Punta del Faro, in the island of Scilly, with fuch fury, which returning with great noife and celerity directly upon the beach, where the prince and the unfortunate inhabitants of Scilla had taken refuge, either dashed them with their boats and richest effects against the rocks, or whirled them into the fea; thofe who had escaped the first and greatest wave were carried off by a fe cond and third, which were lefs confiderable, and immediately followed the firft. I fpoke to feveral men, women, and children, here, who had been cruelly maimed, and fome of whom had been carried into the sea by this unforeseen accident. Here,' faid one, my head was forced through

the door of the cellar,' which he fhewed me was broken. There,' faid another, was I drove into a barrel. Then a woman would fhew me her

child, all over deep wounds from the ftones and timber, &c. that were mixed with the water, and dafhing about in this narrow port; but all affured me they had not perceived the least symptom of heat in the water, though I dare fay, Sir, you will read many well-attefted accounts of this water having been hot; of many dead bodies thrown up, which appeared to have been parboiled by it; and of many living perfons who had evidently been fcalded by this hot wave; fo difficult is it to arrive at truth. Had I been fatisfied with the first answer of the priest at the Punta del Faro, and fet it down in my Journal, who could have doubted but that this wave had been of hot water? Now that we are well acquainted with the cause of this fatal wave, we know it could not have been hot; but the teftimony of fo many unfor tunate fufferers from it is decifive. A fact which I was told, and which was attefted by many here, is very extraordinary indeed: a woman of Scilla, four months gone with child, was swept into the fea by the wave, and was taken up alive, floating on her back at fome diftance, nine hours after. She did not even mifcarry, and is now perfectly well; and, had the not been gone up into the country, they would have fhewn her to me. They told me she had been used to fwim, as do moft of the women in this part of Calabria. Her anxiety and fufferings, however, had arrived at fo great a pitch, that, juft at the time that the boat which took her up appeared, fhe was trying to force her head under water, to put a period to her miferable exiftence. The Padre Minafi told me another curious circumftance that happened in this neighbourhood, which to his know ledge was ftrictly true: a girl about 18 years of age was buried under the ruins of a house 6 days, having had her foot, at the ancle, almoft cut off by the edge of a barrel that fell upon it; the duft and mortar ftopped the blood; fhe never had the affiftance of a furgeon; but the foot of itfelf

dropped off, and the wound is per fectly healed without any other affi ftance but that of nature. If of fuch extraordinary circumstances, and of hair-breadth efcapes, an account was to be taken in all the destroyed towns of Calabria Ultra and Sicily, they would, as I faid before, compofe a large volume. I have only recorded a few of the moft extraordinary, and fuch as I had from the most undoubted authority. In my way back to Naples, (where I arrived the 23d of May) along the coaft of the two Calabrias and the Principato Citra, I only went on fhore at Tropea, Paula, and in the Bay of Palinurus. I found Tropea (beautifully fituated on a rock overhanging the fea) but little damaged: however, all the inhabitants were in barracks. At Paula the fame. The fishermen here told me they continued to take a great abundance of fifh, as they had done ever fince the commencement of the prefent calamity. At Tropea, the 15th of May, there was a fevere shock of an earthquake, but of a very short duration. There were five fhocks during my stay in Calabria and Sicily; three of them rather alarming; and at Meffina, in the night-time, I conftantly felt a little tremor of the earth, which has been obferved by many of the Meffinefe. I am really afhamed, Sir, of fending fuch an unconnected, hafty extract of my Journal; but when I reflect, that unless I fend it off directly, the Royal Society will be broken up for the fummer-feafon, and the subject will become ftale before it's next meeting; of two evils I prefer to chufe the leaft. Such rough drafts, however, (though ever fo imperfect and incorrect) have, as in paintings, the merit of a firft fketch, and a kind of fpirit that is often loft when the picture is correctly finished. If you confider the fatigue and hurry of the journey I have just been taking; and that, in the midft of the preparations for my other journey to England, which I propofe to begin to-morrow, I have been writing this account, I fhall hope

then