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can boast of, had been entirely ruined; that the Lazaret had been greatly damaged; but that the citadel had fuffered little ;-that the mother church had fallen; in fhort, that Meffina was no more;-that the tower at the point of the entrance of the Faro was half deftroyed; and that the fame hot wave, that had done fuch mischief at Scilla, had paffed over the point of land at the Faro, and carried off about 24 people. The viceroy of Sicily likewife gave an account of fome damage done by the earthquakes, but nothing confiderable, at Melazzo, Patti, Terra di Santa Lucia, Caftro Reale, and the island of Lipari.

"This, Sir, was the intelligence I was poffeffed of the end of last month; but as I am particularly curious, as you know, on the fubject of volcanoes, and was perfuaded in my own mind, (from the prefent earthquakes being confined to one fpot) that fome great chemical operation of nature of the volcanic fort was the real caufe of them; in order to clear up many points, and to come at truth, which you alfo well know, Sir, is exceedingly difficult, I took the fudden refolution to employ about twenty days (which was as much as I could allow, and have time to be out of Italy, in my way home, before the heats fet in) in making the tour of fuch parts of Calabria Ultra and Sicily as had been, and were ftill, moft affected by the earthquakes, and examining with my own eyes the phenomena above mentioned. I accordingly hired for that purpofe a Maltefe fperonara for myself, and a Neapohitan felucca for my fervants, and left Naples the 2d of May. I was furnished, by command of his Sicilian majefty, with ample paffports, and orders to the commanding offi

cers of the different provinces to give me every affiitance and protection in the purfuit of my object. I had a pleasant voyage in my Maltese fperonara (which are excellent boats, and the boatmen very skilful) along the coaft of the Principato Citra and Calabria Citra, after having paffed the gulf of Policaftro. At Cedraro I found the first tymptoms of the earthquake, fome of the principal inhabitants of that city having quit ted their houfes, and living in new erected barracks, though not a house in the whole town, as I could fee, had fuffered. At St. Lucido I perceived that the baron's palace and the church steeple had fuffered, and that moft of the inhabitants were in barracks. The barracks are just fuch fort of buildings as the booths of our country fairs, though indeed many I have feen are more like our pigftyes. As my object was to get as fast as poffible to the center of the mifchief, having little time, and much to fee, I contented myself with a diftant view of Maida, Nicaftro, and Santo Eufemia, and pufhed on to the town of Pizzo in Calabria Ultra, where I landed on the evening of the 6th of May. This town, fituated on the fea, and on a volcanic tuffa, had been greatly damaged by the earthquake of the 5th of February, but was com pletely ruined by that of the 28th of March. As the inhabitants of this town (amounting to about 5000) had fufficient warning, and had left their houfes, and taken to barracks on the first fhock the 5th of Febru ary, the mortality on the 28th of March was inconfiderable; but, from the barracks having been illconftructed, and many fituated in a very confined unwholefome fpot, an epidemical diforder had taken place, and carried off many, and was ftill in fatal force whilft I was there, in

spite of the wife endeavours of government to stop its progrefs. I fear, as the heats increase, the fame misfortune will attend many parts of the unfortunate Calabria, as alfo the city of Meffina. The inhabitants of Pizzo feemed to me to have habituated themselves already to their prefent inconvenient manner of living, and fhops of every kind were opened in the streets of the barracks, which, except fome few, are but poorly conftructed. I was affured here, that the volcano of Stromboli, which is oppofite, and in full view of, this town, and at the distance of about fifty miles, had fmoked lefs, and thrown up a lels quantity of inflamed matter during the earthquakes than it had done for fome years pait; that flight fhocks continued to be felt daily; and the night I flept here, on board the fperonara drawn on fhore, I was awakened with a fmart one, which feemed to lift up the bottom of the boat, but it was not attended with any fubterraneous noife. My fervants, in the other boat, felt the fame. The next day I ordered my boats to proceed to Reggio, and I went on horseback to Monteleone, about fix miles from Pizzo, up hill, on a road of loofe ftones and clay, fcarcely paffable in this feafon, but through the most beautiful and fertile country I ever beheld: a perfect garden of olive-trees, mulberty. trees, fruit trees, and vines; and under thefe trees the richest crops of corn or lupins, beans or other vegetables, which feemed to thrive perfectly, though under a thick fhade. This is the file of the whole plain of Monteleone, except that here and there are vaft woods of oak and olive-trees mixed, and the olive erces of fuch a fize as I could never have conceived, being half as big as the oaks themselves, which are fine

timber-trees, and more than treble the fize of the olive-trees of the Campagna Felice. The olive woods, in fome parts of the plain, are regularly planted in lines, and in others grow irregularly. Though the ob ject of my prefent journey was merely to take a hafty view of the spots which had fuffered fo much by the calamity, my attention was continually called away, and I was loft in the admiration of the fertility and beauty of this rich province, exceeding by many degrees (as to the first point) every country I have yet feen. Befides the two rich products of filk and oil, in which this province furpaffes every other, perhaps in the whole world, it abounds with corn, wine, cotton, liquorice, fruit, and vegetables of every kind; and if its population and industry kept pace with its fertility, the revenue of Calabria Ultra might furely be more than doubled in a fhort time. I faw whole groves of mulberry-trees, the owners of which told me, did not let for more than five fhillings an acre, when every acre would be worth at least five pounds, had they hands to gather the leaves and attend the filk worms. The town of Monteleone, anciently Vibo Valentia, is beautifully fituated on a hill, overlooking the fea, and the rich plains above mentioned, bounded by the Apennines, and crowned by Afpramonte, the higheft of them all, interfperfed with towns and villages, which, alas! are no more than heaps of ruins. The town of Monteleone fuffered little by the first shocks of the earth. quake; but was greatly damaged by that of the 28th of March (though only twelve lives were loft), and all the inhabitants are reduced to live in barracks, many of which are well conftructed with either planks or reeds, covered with plaif

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feveral peasants in the country told me, that the motion of the earth was to violent, that the heads of the largest trees almost touched the ground from tide to fide; that during a fhock, oxen and horses extend

ter on the outfide. As this country has ever been fubject to earthquakes, the barons had ufually a barrack near their palace, to retire to, on the leaft alarm of an earthquake. I inhabited here a magnificent one, confitting of many rooms well furnished their legs wide afunder not to be ed, which was built by the prelent duke of Monteleon's grand-father. I owe the fafety and the expedition of the very interesting journey which I have taken through this province to this duke's goodness, as he was pleafed at Naples to furnish me with a letter to his agent; in confequence of which, I was not only moit hofpitably and elegantly treated in his barrack, and fupplied with excellent fure-footed horfes for myself and fervant, but also with two of his horfe-guards, well acquainted with the cross roads of the country, with out which it would have been impoffible, with any degree of fafety, to have vifited every curious fpot between Monteleone and Reggio, as I did in four days. No one, that has not had the experience, can conceive the horrid state of the roads in Calabria, even in this feafon, nor the fuperior excellence of the horfes of the country. All agreed here that every fhock of the earthquake feemed to come with a rumbling noife from the weftward, beginning ufually with the horizontal motion, and ending with the vorticofe, which is the motion that has ruined moft of the buildings in this province. The fame obfervation I found to be a general one throughout this province. I found it a general obfervation alfo, that before a fhock of an earthquake, the clouds feemed to be fixed and motionless; and that immediately after a heavy fhower of rain, a fhock quickly followed. I fpoke with many here and elsewhere, who were thrown down by the violence of fome of the fhocks; and

thrown down, and that they gave evident figns of being fenfible of the approach of each shock. I myself obferved, that in the parts that have fuffered moft by the earthquakes, the braying of an afs, the neighing of a horfe, or the cackling of a goofe, always drove people out of their barracks, and was the occafion of many pater-nofters and ave-maries being repeated in expectation of a shock. From Monteleone I defcended into the plain, having pafied through many towns and villages which had been more or lefs ruined according to their vicinity to the plain. The town of Mileto, fituated in a bottom, I faw was totally deftroyed, and not a houte ftanding. At fome distance I faw Soriano and the noble Dominican convent a heap of ruins ; but as my object was not to vist ruins, but the greater phenomena produced by the earthquakes, I went on to Rofarno. I must, however, firit mention the most remarkable inftance I met with of animals being able to live long without food, of which there have been many examples during thefe prefent earthquakes. At Soriano two fattened hogs, that had remained buried under a heap of ruins, were taken out alive the forty-fecond day; they were lean and weak, but foon re covered. One of his Sicilian majefty's engineers, who was prefent at the taking them out, gave me this information. It was evident to me, in this day's journey, that all habitations fituated on high grounds, the foil of which is a gritty fand-stone, fomewhat like a granite, but with

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out the confiftence, had fuffered lefs than thofe fituated in the plain, which are univerfally levelled to the ground. The foil of the plain is a fandy clay, white, red, or brown; but the white prevails moft, and is full of marine fhells, particularly fcollop fhells. This valley of clay is interfected in many parts by rivers and torrents coming from the mountains, which have produced wide and deep ravines all over the country. Soon after we had paffed through the ruined town of St. Pie tro, we had a diftant view of Sicily, and the fummit of Mount Etna, which fmoked confiderably. Just before we arrived at Rofarno, near a ford of the river Mamella we paffed over a fwampy plain, in many parts of which I was fhewn fmall hollows in the earth, of the fhape of an inverted cone: they were covered with fand, as was the foil near them. I was told that, during the earthquake of the 5th of February, from each of thefe fpots a fountain of water mixed with the fand had been driven up to a confiderable height. Ifpoke to a peafant here, who was prefent, and was covered with the water and fand; but affured me, that it was not hot, as had been reprefented. Before this appearance, he faid, the river was dry; but foon after re turned and overflowed its banks. I afterwards found, that the fame phenomenon had been conftant with respect to all other rivers in the plain during the formidable fhock of the 5th of February. I think this phenomenon is easily explained, by fuppoling the first impulfe of the earthquake to have come from the bottom upwards, which all the inhabitants of the plain atteft to be fact; the furface of the plain fuddenly rifing, the rivers, which are not deep, would naturally ditappear, and the plain, returning with violence to its

former level, the rivers must naturally have returned, and overflowed, at the fame time that the fudden depreffion of the boggy grounds would as naturally force out the water that lay hid under their furface. I obferved in the other parts where this fort of phenomenon had been exhi bited, that the ground was always low and rufhy. Between this place and Rofarno we paffed the river Meffano or Metauro (which is near the town above mentioned) on a strong timber bridge, 700 palms long, which had been lately built by the duke of Monteleone. From the cracks made on the banks and in the bed of the ri ver by the earthquake, it was quite feparated in one part, and the level on which the piers were placed having been varioufly altered, the bridge has taken an undulated form, and the rail on each fide is curiously foolloped; but the parts that were feparated having been joined again, it is. now paffable. The duke's bridgeman told me alfo, that at the moment of the earthquake, this great river was perfectly dry for fome fe conds, and then returned with violence, and overflowed; and that the bridge undulated in a moft extraordi nary manner. When I mention the earthquake in the plain, it must be always understood the first shock of the 5th of February, which was by far the most terrible, and was the one that did the whole mischief in the plain, without having given any previous notice The town of Kofarno, with the duke of Montele one's palace there, was entirely ruined; but the walls remained about fix feet high, and are now fitting up as barracks. The mortality here did not much exceed 200 out of near 3000. It had been remarked at Ro farno, and the fame remark has been conftantly repeated to me in every ruined town that i have visited, that

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the male dead were generally found under the ruins in the attitude of ftruggling against the danger; but that the female attitude was ufually with hands clafped over their heads, as giving themfelves up to defpair, unlefs they had children near them; in which cafe they were always found clafping the children in their arms, or in fome attitude which indicated their anxious care to protect them; a strong inftance of the maternal tenderness of the fex! The only building that remained unhurt at Rofarno was a strong built town gaol, in which were three notorious villains, who would probably have loft their lives had they been at li berty. After having dined in a bar rack, the owner of which had loft five of his family by the earthquake, I proceeded to Laureana, often croff ing the wide extended bed of the river Metauro. The environs of Laureana, which stands on an elevation, is the garden of Eden itself; nothing I ever faw can be compared to it. The town is confiderable; but as the earthquake did not come on fuddenly, as in the plain, not a life was loft there; but from a fick nefs, occafioned by hardships and fright, 52 have died fince. I lodged in the barracks of a fenfible gentleman of Mileto, Don Domenico Acquanetta, who is a principal proprietor of this town. He attended me the next day to the two tenements, called the Macini and vaticano, mentioned in the former part of this letter, and which were faid to have changed their fituation by the earthquake. The fact is true, and eafily accounted for. These tenements were fituated in a valley furrounded by high grounds, and the furface of the earth, which has been removed, had been probably long undermined by little rivulets, which come from the mountains, and now are in full

view on the bare spot the tenements had deferted These rivulets have a fufficiently rapid course down the valley, to prove its not being a perfect level as was reprefented. I fuppofe the earthquake to have opened fome depofitions of rain-water, in the clay hills which furround the valley, which water, mixed with the loofe foil, taking its courfe fuddenly through the undermined furface, lifting it up with the large olive and mulberry-trees, and a thatched cottage, floated the entire piece of ground, with all its vegetation, about a mile down the valley, where it now ftands, with most of the trees erect. These two tenements may be about a mile long and half a mile broad. I was fhewn feveral deep cracks in this neighbourhood, not one above a foot in breadth; but which, I was credibly affured, had opened wide during the earthquake, and fwallowed up an ox, and near an hundred goats, but no countrymen, as was reported. In the valley above mentioned I faw the fame fort of hollows,in the form of inverted cones, out of which, I was af fured, that hot water and fand had been emitted with violence during the carthquakes as at Rofarno; but I could not find any one who could pofitively affirm that the water had been really hot, although the reports which government received affirm it. Some of the fand thrown out here with the water has a ferrugi nous appearance, and feems to have been acted upon by fire. I was told, that it had alfo, when fresh, a strong fmell of fulphur, but I could not perceive it.

"From hence I went through the fame delightful country to the town of Poliftene. To pafs through fo rich a country, and not fee a fingle houfe ftanding on it, is moft melancholy indeed; wherever a house

stood,

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