to in the territory of Polistena, where there appeared innumerable fissures in the earth. One of these was of great length and depth; and in parts the level of the corresponding sides was greatly changed. (See wood-cut No. 25.)

Terranuova.-In the town of Terranuova some houses were seen uplifted above the common level, and others adjoining sunk down into the earth. In several streets the soil appeared thrust up, and abutted against the walls of houses: a large circular tower of solid masonry, part of which had withstood the general destruction, was divided by a vertical rent, and one side was upraised, and the foundations heaved out of the ground. It was compared by the Academicians to a great tooth half extracted from the alveolus, with the upper part of the fangs exposed. (See cut No. 26.)

Shift or "faull" in the round tower of Terranuova in Calabria, occasioned

Along the line of this shift, or "fault," as it would be termed technically by miners, the walls were found to adhere firmly to each other, and to fit so well, that the only signs of their having been disunited was the want of correspondence in the courses of stone on either side of the rent.

Dolomieu saw a stone well in the convent of the Augustins at Terranuova, which had the appearance of having been driven out of the earth. It resembled a small tower eight or nine feet in height, and a little inclined. This effect, he says, was produced by the consolidation and consequent sinking of the sandy soil in which the well was dug.

In some walls which had been thrown down, or violently shaken, in Monteleone, the separate stones were parted from the mortar, so as to leave an exact mould where they had rested; whereas in other cases the mortar was ground to dust between the stones.

It appears that the wave-like motions, and those which are called vorticose or whirling in a vortex, often produced effects of the most capricious kind. Thus, in some streets of Monteleone, every house was thrown down but one; in others, all but two; and the buildings which were spared were often scarcely in the least degree injured.

In many cities of Calabria, all the most solid buildings were thrown down, while those which were slightly built escaped; but at Rosarno, as also at Messina in Sicily, it was precisely the reverse, the massive edifices being the only ones that stood. Two obelisks (No. 27.) placed at the extremities of a magnificent façade in the convent of S. Bruno, in a small town called Stefano del Bosco, were observed to have undergone a movement of a singular kind. The shock

Shift in the stones of two obelisks in the Convent of S. Bruno.

which agitated the building is described as having been horizontal and vorticose. The pedestal of each obelisk remained in its original place; but the separate stones above were turned partially round, and removed sometimes nine inches from their position without falling.

Fissures.-It appears evident that a great part of the rending and fissuring of the ground was the effect of a violent motion from below upwards; and in a multitude of cases where the rents and chasms opened and closed alternately, we must suppose that the earth was by turns heaved up, and then let fall again. We may conceive the same effect to be produced on a small scale, if, by some mechanical force, a pavement composed of large flags of stone should be raised up, and then allowed to fall suddenly, so as to resume its original position. If any small pebbles happened to be lying on the line of contact of two flags, they would fall into the opening when the pavement rose, and be swallowed up, so that no trace of them would appear

after the subsidence of the stones. In the same manner, when the earth was upheaved, large houses, trees, cattle, and men were engulphed in an instant in chasms and fissures; and when the ground sank down again, the earth closed upon them, so that no vestige of them was discoverable on the surface. In many instances, individuals were swallowed up by one shock, and then thrown out again alive, together with large jets of water, by the shock which immediately succeeded.

At Jerocarne, a country which, according to the Academicians, was lacerated in a most extraordinary manner, the fissures ran in every direction "like cracks on a broken pane of glass" (see cut No. 28.); and, as a great portion of them remained open after the shocks, it is very possible that this country was permanently upraised. It was usual, as we learn from

Dolomieu, for the chasms and fissures throughout Calabria to run parallel to the course of some pre-existing gorges in their neighbourhood.

Houses engulphed.-In the vicinity of Oppido, the central point from which the earthquake diffused its violent movements, many houses were swallowed up by the yawning earth, which closed immediately over them. In the adjacent district, also, of Cannamaria four farm-houses, several oil-stores, and some spacious dwelling-houses were so completely engulphed in one chasm, that not a vestige of them was afterwards discernible. The same phenomenon occurred at Terranuova, S. Christina, and Sinopoli. The Academicians state particularly, that when deep abysses had opened in the argillaceous strata of Terranuova, and houses had sunk into them, the sides of the chasms closed with such violence, that, on excavating afterwards to recover articles of value, the workmen found the contents and detached parts of the buildings jammed together so as to become one compact mass. It is unnecessary to accumulate examples of similar occurrences; but so many are well authenticated during this earthquake in Calabria, that we may, without hesitation, yield assent to the accounts of catastrophes of the same kind repeated again and again in history, where whole towns are declared to have been engulphed, and nothing but a pool of water or tract of sand left in their place.

Chasm formed near Oppido.- On the sloping side of a hill near Oppido a great chasm opened; and, although a large quantity of soil was precipitated into the abyss, together with a considerable number of olive-trees and part of a vineyard, a great gulph remained after the shock, in the form of an amphi