curious to fee the nuns that had efcaped, I asked the marquis to fhew me their barraks; but, it feems, only one out of twentythree had been dug out of her cell alive, and he was fourfcore years of age. After having dined with the marquis in his humble barrack, near the ruins of his very magnificent palace, I went through a fine wood of olive, and another of chefnut.trees, to Cafal Nuovo, and was fhewn the fpot on which ftood the houfe of my unfortunate friend the princefs Gerace Gri. maldi, who with more than four thousand of her fubjects loft her life by the fudden explosion of the 5th of February (for fo it appears to have been) that reduced this town to atoms. I was told by fome here, who had been dug out of the ruins, that they felt their houfes fairly lifted up, without having had the leaft previous notice. In other towns fome walls and parts of houfes are ftanding; but here you neither diftinguish street or house, all lye in one confufed heap of ruins. An inha bitant of Cafal Nuovo told me, he was on a hill at the moment of the earthquake, overlooking the plain, when feeling the fhock, and turning towards the plain, inftead of the town, he faw in the place of it a thick cloud of white duft like fmoke, the natural effect of the crushing of the buildings, and the mortar flying off. From hence I went through the towns of Caftellace and Mili. cufco (both in the fame condition as Cafal Nuovo) to Terra Nuova, fituated in the fame lovely plain, between two rivers, which, with the torrents from the mountains, have, in the courfe of ages, cut deep and wide cha ms in the foft fandy clay foil of which the whole plain is compofed. At Terra Nuova the ravine or chafm is not lefs than 500 feet deep, and three quarters of a mile broad. What caufes a confufion in all the ac. counts of the phenomena pro duced by this earthquake in the plain, is the not having foffi ciently explained the nature of the foil and fituation. They tell you, that a town has been thrown a mile from the place where it flood, without mentioning a word of a ravine; that woods and corn-fields had been removed in the fome manner; when in truth it is but upon a large fcale, what we fre every day upon a fmaller, when pieces of the fides of hollow ways, having been undermined by rain waters, are detached into the bot. tom by their own weight. Here, from the great depth of the ta vine, and the violent motion of the earth, two huge portions of the earth, on which a great part of the town ftood, confifting of fome hundreds of houfes, were detached into the ravine, and nearly acrofs it, about half a mile from the place where they flood; and what is moft extraordinary, feveral of the inhabitants of these houfes, who had taken this fin. gular leap in them, were neverthe lefs dug out alive, and fome unhurt. I fspoke to one myself who had taken this extraordinary journey in his houfe, with his wife and a maid. fervant: neither he nor his maid- fervant were hurt; but he told me, his wife had been a little hurt, but was now nearly recovered. I happened to afk him, what hurt his wife had received? His answer, though of a earthquake the river difappeared here, as at Rofarno, and returning foon after, overflowed the bottom of the ravine about three feet in depth, fo that the poor people that had been thrown with their houfes into the ravine from the top of it, and had escaped with broken bones, were now in danger of being drowned. I was affured, that the water was falt, like that of the fea; but this circumftance feems to want confirmation. The fame reafon I have given for the fudden difappearing of the river Metauro at Rofarno will account for the like phenomenon here, and in every part of the country where the rivers dried up at the bottom of the earthquake. The whole town of Mollochi di Sotto near Terra Nuova, was likewife detached into the ra very ferious nature, will neverthe lefs, I am fure, make you fmile, Sir, as it did me. He faid, the had both her legs and one arm broken, and that the had a frac. ture on her skull fo that the brain was visible. It appears to me, that the Calabrefi have more firm nefs than the Neapolitans; and they really feem to bear their exceffive prefent misfortune with a true philofophic patience. Of 1600 inhabitants at Terra Nuova, only 400 efcaped alive. My guide there, who was a prieft and phyfician, had been fhut up in the ruins of his houfe by the firft fhock, of the earthquake, and was blown out of it, and delivered by the fucceeding fhock, which followed the first immediately. There are many well-attefted inftances of the fame having happened elfewhere in Calabria. In other parts of the plain fituated near the ravine, and near the town of Terra Nuova, I faw many acres of land with trees and corn-fields that had been detached into the ravine, and often without having been over. turned, fo that the trees and crops were growing as well as if they had been planted there. Other fuch pieces were lying in the bot tom, in an inclined fituation? and others again that had been quite overturned. In one place, two of thefe immenfe pieces of land hav. ing been detached oppofite to one another, had filled the valley, and ftopped the courfe of the river, the waters of which were forming a great lake and this is the true itate of what the accounts mention of mountains that had walked, and joined together, ftopped the courfe of the river, and formed a lake. At the moment of the vine, and a vineyard of many acres near it lies in the bottom of the ravine as I faw in a perfect order, but in an inclined fituation: there is a foot path through this vineyard, which has a fingular effect, confidering its prefent impracticable fituation. Some water mills, that were on the river, having been jammed between two fuch detached pieces as above defcribed, were lifted up by them, and are now feen on an elevated fituation, many feet above the level of the river. Without the proper explanations it is no wonder that fuch facts fhould appear miraculous. I obferved in several parts of the plain, that the foil with timber.trees and crops of corn, confifting of many acres, had funk eight and ten feet below the level of the plain; and in others again I perceived it had rifen as many. It is neceffary to remember, E 4 remember, that the foil of the plain is a clay mixed with sand, which is eafily moulded into any shape. In the plain, near the fpots from whence the above mentioned pieces had been detached into the ravine, there were feveral parallel cracks, fo that had the violence of the fhocks of the earthquake continued, thefe, pieces alfo would have probably followed. I remarked conftantly in all my journey, that near every ravine, or hollow way, the parts of the plain adjoining were full of large pa. rallel cracks. The, earth rocking with violence from fide to fide, and having a fupport on one fide only, accounts well for this circumftance. From Terra Nuova I went to Oppido. This city is fituated on a mountain of a ferruginous fort of gritty ftone, unlike the clay foil of its neighbour. hood, and is furrounded by two rivers in a ravine deeper and broader than that of Terra Nuova. Inflead of the mountain on which Oppido was fituated having fplit in two, and by its fall on the rivers, ftopped their courfe and formed great lakes, as we were told; it was (as at Terra Nuova) huge pieces of the plain on the edge of the ravine, that had been detached. into it, nearly filled it up, and ftopped the courfe of the rivers, the waters of which are now forming two great lakes. It is true, that part of the rock on which Oppido ftood was detached with feveral houfes into the ravine; but that is a trifling circumftance in comparison of the very great tracts of land, with large plantations of vines and olive-trees, which have been de tached from one fide of the ravine clear over to the other, though the diftance is more than half a mile. It is well attefted, that a country. man, who was ploughing his field in this neighbourhood with a par of oxen, was tranfported with his field and team clear from one fide of a ravine to the other, and that neither he nor his oxen were hurt, After what I have feen, I verily believe this may have happened. A large volume might be com. pofed of the curious facts and ac cidents of this kind produced by the earthquakes in the valley; and, I fuppofe, many will be recorded in the account of the late formidable earthquakes, which the academy of Naples intend to publish, the prefident having al ready fent into Calabria Afteen members, with draughtsmen in proportion, to collect the facts, and make drawings for the fole purpofe of giving a fatisfactory and ample account of the late calamity to the publick; but unless they attend as I did, to the na ture of the foil of the place where thofe accidents happened, their reports will generally meet with little credit, except from thofe who are profeffed dilettanti of miracles, and many fuch do certainly exift in this country." Sir William concludes his letter as follows: "But before I take my leave, I will just fum up the refult of my obfervations in Calabria and Sici ly, and give you my reafons for believing that the prefent earth. quakes are occafioned by the ope ration of a volcano, the feat of which feems to lye deep, either under the bottom of the fea, between the island of Stromboli and the coaft of Calabria, or under the the parts of the plain towards Op- of the accounts of the earthquakes that are in the prefs, and which are numerous) the philofophers, who do not easily abandon their ancient fyftems, make the prefent eanhquakes to proceed from the high mountains of the Apennines that divide Calabria Ultra, fuch as the Monte Dejo, Monte Coulone, and Afpramonte; I would ask them this fimple question, Did the Eolian or Lipari iflands (all which rofe undoubtedly from the bottom of the fea by volcanic explofions at different, and perhaps very diftant, periods), owe their birth to the Apennines in Calabria, or to veins of minerals in the bowels of the earth, and under the bottom of the fea? Stromboli an active volcano, and probably the youngest of thofe iflands, is not above 50 miles from the parts of Calabria that have been most affected by the late earthquakes. The vertical fhocks, or, in other words, thofe whofe impulfe was from the bottom upwards, have been the most deftructive to the unhappy towns in the plain; did' they proceed from Monte Dejo, Monte Coulone, or Afpramonte? In short, the idea I have of the prefent local earthquakes is, that they have been caufed by the fame kind of matter that gave birth to the Eolian or Lipari iflands; that, perhaps, an opening may have been made at the bottom of the fea, and most probably between Stromboli and Calabria Ultra (for from that quarter all agree, that the fubterraneous noifes feem to have proceeded); and that the foundation of a new inland or volcano may have been laid, though it may be ages, which to nature are but moments, before it is completed, pido and Terra Nuova. If on a remember, that the foil of the plain is a clay mixed with fand, which is eafily moulded into any shape. In the plain, near the fpots from whence the above men tioned pieces had been detached into the ravine, there were feveral parallel cracks, fo that had the violence of the fhocks of the earthquake continued, thefe, pieces alfo would have probably followed. I remarked conftantly in all my journey, that near every ravine, or hollow way, the parts of the plain adjoining were full of large pafull of large parallel cracks. The, earth rocking with violence from fide to fide, and having a fupport on one fide only, accounts well for this circumftance. From Terra Nuova I went to Oppido. This city is fituated on a mountain of a ferruginous fort of gritty ftone, unlike the clay foil of its neighbour. hood, and is furrounded by two rivers in a ravine deeper and broader than that of Terra Nuova. Inflead of the mountain on which Oppido was fituated having fplit in two, and by its fall on the rivers, ftopped their courfe and formed great lakes, as we were told; it was (as at Terra Nuova) huge pieces of the plain on the edge of the ravine, that had been detached into it, nearly filled it up, and ftopped the courfe of the rivers, the waters of which are now forming two great lakes. It is true, that part of the rock on which Oppido flood was detached with feveral houfes into the ravine; but that is a trifling ci cumftance in comparison of the very great tracts of land, with large plantations of of vines and olive-trees, which have been detached from one fide of the ravine clear over to the other, though the distance is more than half a mile. It is well attefted, that a countryman, who was ploughing his fil in this neighbourhood with a pir of oxen, was tranfported with hu field and team clear from one fide of a ravine to the other, and that neither he nor his oxen were hurt. After what I have feen, I verily believe this may have happened A large volume might be com pofed of the curious facts and accidents of this kind produced by the earthquakes in the valley; and, I fuppofe, many will be recorded in the account of the late formidable earthquakes, which the academy of Naples intend to publish, the prefident having already fent into Calabria tees members, with draughtsmen in proportion, to collect the facts, and make drawings for the fle purpofe of giving a fatisfactory and ample account of the late calamity to the publick; but unk they attend as I did, to the na ture of the foil of the place where thofe accidents happened, the reports will generally meet with little credit, except from thofe whe are profeffed dilettanti of miracles, and many fuch do certainly exift this country.” Sir William concludes his letter as follows: "But before I take my leave, I will just fum up the refult of my obfervations in Calabria and Sici ly, and give you my reafons for believing that the prefent earth. quakes are occafioned by the opt ration of a volcano, the feat f which feems to lye deep, either under the bottom of the fea, between the island of Stromboli and the coaft of Calabria, or under the |