Such are details of the more prominent European earthquakes. There have been others of almost equal importance; but three years ago a severe earthquake killed two thousand or more in the Italian Riviera; but the cases given well illustrate the destruction wrought in Europe, and other regions claim attention. CHAPTER XXV. EARTHQUAKES IN THE UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND. The fowls of every hue, “Crowding together, sailed on weary wing, And hovering, oft they seemed about to light, Then soared as if they deemed the earth unsafe. The cattle looked with meaning face on man, Dogs howled, and seemed to see more than their masters, And there were sights that none had seen before. And hollow, strange, unprecedented sounds, And earnest whisperings ran along the hills, At dead of night: and long, deep endless sighs Came from the dreary vale; and from the waste Came horrid shrieks, and fierce unearthly groans, The wail of evil spirits that now felt The hour of utter vengeance near at hand. The winds from every quarter blew at once, And shapes, strange shapes, in winding sheets were seen, And voices talked amid the clouds: and then Earth shook, and swam, and reeled, and oped her jaws, By earthquake tossed and tumbled to and fro.” It is a common assertion that when persons are drowning, all the events of past life rush suddenly before them with startling distinctness: sometimes in amusing combinations: generally the reverse. Something of the same effect is produced by the earthquake; but in a far more terrifying way. Each one is witness to the panic of his neighbor; and no fright is so terrible as that which is infectious. In moments of great peril a single calm master-spirit may quiet a mob. But when the eternal hills are shaken, when the groaning earth reels beneath the feet, and the mountains are removed and cast into the midst of the sea, who is there that retains his presence of mind? Man’s social arrangements are calculated upon a supposition of the earth’s stability: and when he finds himself the victim of misplaced confidence, there is neither courage nor spirit nor reason left in him. Numerous are the cases where men have been rendered insane by such convulsions.