A mountain was cleft completely in two; and a lake of considerable size was formed by the opening of this great chasm, and springs bursting out at the bottom. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood were afraid that the pool of nearly stagnant water which was thus formed would injure their health, and were at great expense in trying to drain it; but it was all in vain, for the springs that fed it at the bottom were inexhaustible. A great mass of earth, or hill, two hundred feet high, and four hundred feet in diameter, was moved nearly four miles out of its place, with trees growing upon it; and another similar mass, with a house on it, which was not at all injured. Some olive and mulberry trees travelled a full mile. These great movements were aided by springs under the masses of earth, which made a slimy sort of road for them; and, of course, the whole distance was down hill. "Great agitation was frequently observed in the bed of the sea during the shocks, and, on those parts of the coast where the movement was most violent, all kinds of fish were taken in greater abundance, and with much greater facility. Some rare species, which usually lie buried in the sand, were taken on the surface of the waters in great quantity. The sea is said to have boiled up near Messina, and to have been agitated as if by a copious discharge of vapours from its bottom. The Prince of Scilla had persuaded a great part of his vassals to betake themselves to their fishing-boats for safety, and he himself had gone on board. On the night of the 5th of February, when some of the people were sleeping in the boats, and others on a level plain, slightly elevated above the sea, the earth rocked, and suddenly a great mass was torn from the contiguous Mount Jaci, and thrown down with a dreadful crash upon the plain. Immediately afterwards, the sea rising thirty palms above the level of this low tract, rolled foaming over it, and swept away the multitude. It then retreated, but soon rushed back again with greater violence, bringing with it some of the people and animals it had carried away. At the same time every boat was sunk or dashed against the beach, and some of them were swept far inland. The aged Prince, with one thousand four hundred and thirty of his people, was destroyed. The number of persons who perished during the earthquake is estimated at about forty thousand, and about twenty thousand more died by diseases which were caused by insufficient nourishment, exposure to the atmosphere, and malaria, arising from the new stagnant lakes and pools. By far the greater number were buried under the ruins of their houses; while some were burnt to death in the conflagrations which almost invariably followed the shocks, and consumed immense magazines of oil and other provisions. A small number were engulfed in chasms and fissures, and their skeletons are perhaps buried in the earth to this day, at the depth of several hundred feet, for such was