Part 47

At Busbridge, in Surrey, at half an hour after ten in the morning, the weather being remarkably still, without the least wind, in a canal nearly seven hundred feet long, and fifty-eight in breadth, with a small spring constantly running through it, a very unusual noise was heard at the east end, and the water there observed to be in great agitation. It raised itself in a heap or ridge in the middle; and this heap extended lengthwise about thirty yards, rising between two and three feet above the usual level. After this, the ridge heeled or vibrated toward the north side of the canal, with great force, and flowed above eight feet over the grass walk on that side. On its return back into the canal, it again ridged in the middle, and then heeled with yet greater force to the south side, and flowed over its grass walk. During this latter motion, the bottom on the north side was left dry for several feet. This appearance lasted for about a quarter of an hour, after which the water became smooth and quiet as before. During the whole time, the sand at the bottom was thrown up and mixed with the water; and there was a continual noise like that of water turning a mill. At Cobham, in Surrey, Dunstall, in Suffolk, Earsy Court, in Berkshire, Eatonbridge, Kent, and many other places, the waters were variously agitated.

At Eyam bridge, in Derbyshire Peak, the overseer of the lead mines, sitting in his writing-room, about eleven o’clock, felt a sudden shock, which very sensibly raised him up in his chair, and caused several pieces of plaster to drop from the sides of the room. The roof was so violently shaken, that he imagined the engine-shaft had been falling in. Upon this he immediately ran to see what was the matter, but found everything in perfect safety. At this time two miners were employed in carting, or drawing along the drifts of the mines, the ore and other materials to be raised up at the shafts. The drift in which they were working was about a hundred and twenty yards deep, and the space from one end to the other fifty yards or upward. The miner at the end of the drift had just loaded his cart, and was drawing it along; but he was suddenly surprised by a shock, which so terrified him, that he immediately quitted his employment, and ran to the west end of the drift to his partner, who was no less terrified than himself. They durst not attempt to climb the shaft, lest that should be running in upon them: but while they were consulting what means they should take for their safety, they were surprised by a second shock, more violent than the first; which frightened them so much, that they both ran precipitately to the other end of the drift. They then went down to another miner, who worked about twelve yards below them. He told them that the violence of the second shock had been so great, that it caused the rocks to grind upon one another. His account was interrupted by a third shock, which, after an interval of four or five minutes, was succeeded by a fourth, and, about the same space of time after, by a fifth; none of which were so violent as the second. They heard, after every shock, a loud rumbling in the bowels of the earth, which continued about half a minute, gradually descending, or seeming to remove to a greater distance.

At Shireburn Castle, Oxfordshire, a little after ten in the morning, a very strange motion was observed in the water of a moat which encompassed the building. There was a pretty thick fog, not a breath of air, and the surface of the water all over the moat was smooth as a looking-glass, except at one corner, where it flowed into the shore, and retired again successively, in a surprising manner. How it began to move is uncertain, as it was not then observed. The flux and reflux, when seen were quite regular. Every flood began gently, its velocity increasing by degrees, until at length it rushed in with great impetuosity, till it had attained its full hight. Having remained for a little time stationary, it then retired, ebbing gently at first, but afterward sinking away with great swiftness. At every flux the whole body of water seemed to be violently thrown against the bank; but neither during the time of the flux, nor that of the reflux, did there appear even the least wrinkle of a wave on the other parts of the moat. Lord Parker, who had observed this motion, being desirous to know whether it was universal over the moat, sent a person to the other corner of it, at the same time that he himself stood about twenty-five yards from him to examine whether the water moved there or not. He could not perceive any motion there; but another person, who went to the north-east corner of the moat, diagonally opposite to his lordship, found it as considerable there as where he was. His lordship imagining, that in all probability the water at the corner diagonally opposite to where he was would sink as that by him rose, ordered the person to signify by calling out, when the water by him began to sink, and when to rise. This he did; but to his lordship’s great surprise, immediately after the water began to rise at his own end, he heard the voice calling that it began to rise with him also; and in the same manner he heard that it was sinking at that end, soon after he perceived it to sink by himself. A pond just below was agitated in a similar manner; but the risings and sinkings happened at different times from those at the pond where Lord Parker stood.

At White Rock, in Glamorganshire, about two hours’ ebb of tide, and near a quarter to seven in the evening, a vast quantity of water rushed up with a great noise, floated two large vessels, the least of them above two hundred tuns’ burden, broke their moorings, drove them across the river, and nearly overset them. The whole rise and fall of this extraordinary body of water did not last above ten minutes, nor was it felt in any other part of the river, so that it seemed to have gushed out of the earth at that place.

Similar instances occurred at Loch Lomond and Loch Ness, in Scotland. At Kinsale, in Ireland, and all along the coast to the westward, many similar phenomena were observed.

Shocks were also perceived in several parts of France, as at Bayonne, Bourdeaux and Lyons; and commotions of the waters were observed at Angoulesme, Belleville, Havre de Grace, &c., but not attended with the remarkable circumstances above mentioned.

These are the most striking phenomena with which the earthquake of the first of November, 1755, was attended on the surface of the earth. Those which happened below ground can not be known but by the changes observed in springs, &c., which were in many places very remarkable.

At Tangier, all the fountains were dried up, so that there was no water to be had till night. A very remarkable change was observed in the medicinal waters of Toplitz, a village in Bohemia, famous for its baths. These waters were discovered in the year 762; from which time the principal spring had constantly thrown out hot water in the same quantity, and of the same quality. On the morning of the earthquake, between eleven and twelve, in the forenoon, this principal spring cast forth such a quantity of water, that in the space of half an hour all the baths ran over. About half an hour before this great increase of the water, the spring flowed turbid and muddy; then, having stopped entirely for a minute, it broke forth again with prodigious violence, driving before it a considerable quantity of reddish ocher. After this, it became clear, and flowed as pure as before. It still continued to do so, but the water was in greater quantity, and hotter, than before the earthquake. At Angoulesme, in France, a subterraneous noise, resembling thunder, was heard; and presently after, the earth opened, and discharged a torrent of water, mixed with red sand. Most of the springs in the neighborhood sunk in such a manner, that for some time they were thought to be quite dry. In Britain, no considerable alteration was observed in the earth, except that, near the lead mine above-mentioned, in Derbyshire, a cleft was observed about a foot deep, six inches wide, and one hundred and fifty yards in length.

At sea the shocks of this earthquake were felt most violently. Off St. Lucar, the captain of the Nancy frigate felt his ship so violently shaken, that he thought she had struck the ground; but, heaving the lead, he found she was in a great depth of water. Captain Clark, from Denia, in north latitude thirty-six degrees, twenty-four minutes, between nine and ten in the morning, had his ship shaken and strained as if she had struck upon a rock, so that the seams of the deck opened, and the compass was overturned in the binnacle. Tho master of a vessel bound to the American islands, being in north latitude twenty-five degrees, west longitude forty degrees, and writing in his cabin, heard a violent noise as he imagined, in the steerage; and while he was asking what the matter was, the ship was put into a strange agitation, and seemed as if she had been suddenly jerked up, and suspended by a rope fastened to the mast-head. He immediately started up with great terror and astonishment, and looking out at the cabin-window, saw land, as he took it to be, at the distance of about a mile. Coming upon the deck, the land was no more to be seen, but he perceived a violent current cross the ship’s way to the leeward. In about a minute, this current returned with great impetuosity; and at a league’s distance, he saw three craggy-pointed rocks throwing up waters of various colors, resembling fire. This phenomenon, in about two minutes, ended in a black cloud, which ascended very heavily. After it had risen above the horizon, no rocks were to be seen; though the cloud, still ascending, was long visible, the weather being extremely clear. Between nine and ten in the morning, another ship, forty leagues west of St. Vincent, was so strongly agitated, that the anchors, which were lashed, bounced up, and the men were thrown a foot and a half perpendicularly up from the deck. Immediately after this, the ship sunk in the water as low as the main-chains. The lead showed a great depth of water, and the line was tinged of a yellow color, and smelt of sulphur. The shock lasted about ten minutes; but they felt smaller ones for the space of twenty-four hours.

EARTHQUAKES IN SICILY, AND IN THE TWO CALABRIAS.

These earthquakes began on the fifth of February, 1783, and continued until the latter end of the May following, doing infinite damage, and exhibiting at Messina, in the parts of Sicily nearest to the continent, and in the two Calabrias, a variety of phenomena. The part of the Calabrian provinces most affected by this heavy calamity, lies between the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth degrees of latitude, being the extreme point of the continent; and the greatest force of the earthquakes was exerted at the foot of the particular mountains of the Apennines, named Monte Deio, Monte Sacro and Monte Caulone, extending westward to the Tyrrhene sea. The towns, villages and farm-houses, nearest to these mountains, whether situated on the hills, or in the plains, were totally ruined by the first shock, which happened about noon; and there the destruction of lives was the greatest. The towns still more remote, were, however, greatly damaged by the subsequent shocks, particularly those of the seventh, twenty-sixth and twenty-eighth of February, and that of the first of March. The earth was in a constant tremor, and its motions were various, being either vortical, horizontal or oscillatory, that is, by pulsations or beatings, from the bottom upward. This variety increased the apprehensions of the unfortunate inhabitants, who momentarily expected that the earth would open beneath their feet, and swallow them up. The rains had been continual and violent, often accompanied by lightning and furious gusts of wind. There were many openings and cracks in the earth; and several hills had been lowered, while others were quite level. In the plains, the chasms were so deep, that many roads were rendered impassable. Huge mountains were severed, and portions of them driven into the valleys, which were thus filled up. The course of several rivers was changed; and many springs of water appeared in localities which had before been perfectly dry.

From the city of Amantea, situated on the coast of the Tyrrhene sea, in lower Calabria, proceeding along the western coast to Cape Spartivento, in upper Calabria, and thence along the eastern coast to Cape Alice, a part of lower Calabria, on the Ionian sea, the towns and villages, amounting to nearly four hundred, whether on the coast or inland, were either totally destroyed, or suffered greatly. At Casal Nuovo, the Princess Gerace, and upward of four thousand of the inhabitants, lost their lives. At Bagnara, the number of dead amounted to upward of three thousand; and Radicina and Palmi experienced a similar loss. The total amount of the mortality occasioned by these earthquakes, in Sicily and the two Calabrias, was, agreeably to the official returns, thirty-two thousand, three hundred and sixty-seven; but Sir William Hamilton thought it still greater, and carries his estimate to forty thousand, including foreigners. On the first shock of the earthquake, on the fifth of February, the inhabitants of Scylla escaped from their houses, built on the rock, and, following the example of their prince, took shelter on the sea-shore. By this shock the sea had been raised and agitated so violently, that much damage had been done on the point of the Faro of Messina; but here it acted with still greater violence, for, during the night, an immense wave, which was falsely represented to have been boiling hot, and to have scalded many persons on its rising to a great hight, flowed furiously three miles inland, and swept off in its return two thousand, four hundred and seventy-three of the inhabitants, with the prince at their head, who were either at that time on the strand, or in boats near the shore.

The shocks felt since the commencement of these formidable earthquakes, amounted to several hundreds; and among the most violent may be reckoned the one which happened on the twenty-eighth of March. It affected most of the higher part of upper Calabria, and the inferior part of lower Calabria, being equally tremendous with the first. Indeed, these shocks were the only ones sensibly felt in Naples. With relation to the former, two singular phenomena are recorded. At the distance of about three miles from the ruined city of Oppido, in upper Calabria, was a hill, having a sandy and clayey soil, nearly four hundred feet in hight, and nearly nine hundred feet in circumference at its basis. This hill is said to have been carried to the distance of about four miles from the spot where it stood, into a plain called _Campo di Bassano_. At the same time, the hill on which the city of Oppido stood, and which extended about three miles, divided into two parts: being situated between two rivers, its ruins filled up the valley, and stopped their course, forming two large lakes, which augmented daily. The accounts from Sicily were of a most alarming nature. The greatest part of the fine city of Messina was destroyed by the shock of the fifth of February, and what remained was greatly injured by the subsequent shocks. The quay in the port had sunk considerably, and was in some places more than a foot beneath the water. That superb building, the palazzata, which gave the port a more magnificent appearance than any other in Europe could boast, was entirely thrown down; and the lazaretto greatly damaged. The citadel suffered little; but the cathedral was destroyed, and the tower at the point of the entrance of the harbor much damaged. The wave which had done so much mischief at Scylla, had passed over the point of land at the Faro, and swept away twenty-four persons. The accounts from Melazzo, Patti, Terra di Santa Lucia, Castro Reale, and from the island of Lipari, were very distressing, but the damage done there by the earthquakes not so considerable as at Messina.

Sir William Hamilton, from the limited boundaries of these earthquakes, was persuaded that they were caused by some great operation of nature, of a volcanic kind. To ascertain this, he began his tour by visiting the parts of the coasts of the two Calabrias which had suffered most from this severe visitation. He everywhere came to ruined towns and houses, the inhabitants of which were in sheds, many of them built on such insalubrious spots, that an epidemic had ensued. These unfortunate people agreed that every shock they had felt, seemed to come with a rumbling noise from the westward, beginning usually with the horizontal motion, and ending with the vortical (or whirling) motion, which last had ruined most of the buildings. It had also been generally observed, that, before a shock, the clouds seemed to be fixed and motionless; and that, after a heavy shower of rain, a shock quickly followed. By the violence of some of the shocks, many persons had been thrown down; and several of the peasants described the motion of the earth as so violent, that the tops of the largest trees almost touched the ground from side to side. During a shock, the oxen and horses, they said, kept their legs wide asunder, to prevent being thrown down, and gave evident signs of being sensible of the approach of each shock. Being thus warned, the neighing of a horse, the braying of an ass, or the cackling of a goose, drove them from their temporary huts.

From Monteleone, Sir William descended into the plain, and passed many towns and villages in a ruined state: the city of Mileto, lying in a bottom, was totally destroyed, without a house standing. Among the many examples afforded by these earthquakes, of animals being able to live a long time without food, was that of two hogs, which had remained buried under a heap of ruins at Soriano for forty-two days, and were dug out alive. He had frequent opportunities for observing that the habitations situated on high grounds, having a soil of a gritty sandstone, somewhat like granite, but without its consistence, suffered less than those in the plain, the soil of which is a sandy clay. The latter were universally leveled with the ground. During the first shock, he was told, a fountain of water, mixed with sand, had been forced to a considerable hight: prior to this phenomenon, the river was dry, but it soon returned and overflowed its banks. The other rivers in the plain underwent the like vicissitudes; to account for which, Sir William supposes the first impulsion of the earthquake to have come from the bottom upward; and that such was the fact, the inhabitants attested. The surface of the plain having suddenly risen, the rivers, which are not deep, would naturally disappear; and the plain seeking with violence its former level, the rivers would necessarily return and overflow, at the same time that the sudden depression of the boggy grounds would as naturally force out the water which lay hidden beneath the surface.

It had been stated, in the reports made to the government, that two tenements, named Macini and Vaticano, had, by the effect of the earthquake, changed their situation. In this fact Sir William agrees, and he accounts for it in the following manner. They were situated in a valley surrounded by high grounds, and the surface of the earth which had been removed, had probably been long undermined by the little rivulets which flow from the mountains, and which were in full view on the bare spot the tenements had deserted. He conjectures besides, that, the earthquake having opened some depositions of rain-water in the clayey hills which surrounded the valley, the water, mixing with the loose soil, and taking its course suddenly through the undermined surface, had lifted it up, together with the large olive and mulberry trees, and a thatched cottage, floating the entire piece of ground, with all its vegetation, about a mile down the valley, where he saw it, with most of the trees erect. These two tenements occupied a space of ground about a mile in length, and half a mile in breadth. There were in the vicinity several deep cracks in the earth, not one of which was then more than a foot in breadth; but Sir William was credibly assured, that, during the earthquake, one had opened wide, and had swallowed up an ox and nearly a hundred goats. In this valley he saw hollows, in the form of inverted cones, from which water and sand had been ejected violently at the time of the earthquakes, similar to those which had been pointed out to him at Rosarno. As well at the latter place, as in every ruined town he visited, an interesting remark was made to him, namely, that the male dead were generally found under the ruins, in the attitude of struggling against the danger; but that the attitude of the females was usually with the hands clasped over the head, as if giving themselves up to despair, unless they had children near them: in this case they were always found clasping them in their arms, or in some attitude which indicated their anxious care to protect them. How striking an instance of maternal tenderness!

Sir William traveled four days in the plain, in the midst of indescribable misery. Such was the force of the first shock, on the fifth of February, that the inhabitants of the towns were buried in an instant beneath the ruins of their houses. Of the population of the town of Polistene, which was badly situated between two rivers, wont to overflow their banks, twenty-one hundred individuals perished out of six thousand. It was built near a ravine of great depth; and, by the violent motion of the earth, two huge portions of the ground on which a considerable part of the town, consisting of several hundreds of houses, stood, were detached into the ravine, and nearly across it, to the distance of about half a mile from their original position. What was most extraordinary, many of the inhabitants of these houses, who had taken this singular leap in them, were dug out alive, and several unhurt. Terra Nuova lost three-fourths of a population of sixteen hundred inhabitants; and near to this town and to the ravine, many acres of land covered with trees and corn-fields had been detached and thrown into the latter, often without having been overturned, insomuch that the trees and crops were growing as well as if they had been planted there. Other such pieces of ground were lying in the bottom, in an inclined situation; and others, again, were quite overturned. Two immense portions of land, having been detached opposite to each other, filled the valley, and stopped the course of the river, the waters of which formed a great lake.