"The first shock of February 5th, 1783, threw down, in two minutes, the greater part of the houses in all the cities, towns, and villages, from the western sides of the Apennines in Calabria Ultra, to Messina in Sicily, and convulsed the whole surface of the country. Another occurred on the 28th of March, with almost equal violence. The chain of granite mountains which passes through Calabria from north to south, and attains the height of many thousand feet, was shaken but slightly; but it is said that a great part of the shocks which were spread with a wave-like motion through the recent strata from west to east, became very violent when they reached the point of junction with the granite, as if a reaction was produced where the wave-like movement of the soft strata was suddenly arrested by the more solid rocks. The surface of the country often heaved like the billows of a swelling sea, which produced a swimming in the head like sea-sickness. It is particularly stated, in almost all the accounts, that just before each shock the clouds appeared motionless; and although no explanation is offered of this phenomenon, it is obviously the same as that observed in a ship at sea when it pitches violently. The clouds seem arrested in their career as often as the vessel rises in a direction contrary to their course; so that the Calabrians must have experienced precisely the same motion on the land." At Messina in Sicily, the shore was rent; and the soil along the port, which before the shock was perfectly level, was inclined towards the sea, and the sea itself was considerably deeper, which showed that the inclination must have been occasioned by the bottom's sinking. The quay also sunk down 14 inches below the level of the sea, and the houses in the neighbourhood were much cracked. In one town there was a large round tower of great strength, which was divided by a perpendicular rent, and one-half was raised up several feet, so as to show the foundations. Those who saw it, said that it looked like a great tooth half extracted, showing the fangs. Along the line of the crack, the walls were found to fit so exactly together, that you would not have known they had even been divided if the courses of the stones had not been disturbed. [Illustration]