96 Sir W. Hamilton's Account of the Earthquakes! days over the scene of devaftation in Calabria and Sicily, found at Cedraro the firft fymptoms of the earthquakes, the inhabitants having quitted their houfes, though not one of them had fuffered. At St. Lucido the baron's palace and church had fuffered.--The town of Pizzo, in Calabria Ultra, was greatly damaged Feb. 5, and compleatly ruined March 23. Monte Leone was greatly damaged by the laft. Mileto, fituate in a bottom, was totally deftroyed. Its great river, the ancient Metaurus*, was perfectly dry for fome feconds, and then returned again and overflowed, and its frong timber bridge undulated in a moft extraordinary manner. So riano and the noble Dominican convent are a heap of ruins. St. Pietro and Rofarno, Poliftene, Cafal Nuovo, Caftellace, Milicufco, ruined; and in the latter the princefs Gerace Grimaldi, and 4000 of her fubjects, perifhed by the explosion of Feb. 5. An inhabitant of Cafal Nuovo, at the moment. of the fhack, overlooking the plain from the hill, inftead of the town faw a thick cloud of white duft, like fmoke, the natural effect of the crushing of the buildings, and the mortar flying off. The whole plain, in which three towns flood, for four days journey prefented a fcene of mifery not to be described. The fhock was fo great that all the inhabitants were buried, dead or alive, under the ruin of their houfes in an inftant. In other towns fome walls and parts of houfes are left ftauding, but here you neither diftinguish fireet nor houfe; all lie in one confufed heap of ruins. The foil of this whole lovely plain is a foft fandy clay. Over a ravine, or chafm, 500 feet deep, and three quarters of a mile broad, cut by rivers and mountain torrents in the courfe of ages, near Terra Nuova, two huge portions of earth,on which a great part of the town flood, confifting of fome hundreds of houses, were detached into the ravine, and nearly acrofsit, about half a mile from the placewhere they flood, and many of the inhabi tantsinthem, who were afterwards dug One may give Horace's words, "Teftis Metaurum flumen," a new ap plication. out alive.Many acres of land, with trees and cornfields on them, had been detached into the ravine in like manner, from a height of at least 500 feet, and to the diftance of three quarters of a mile: on fome the produce was ftill growing, others were lying in the bottom in an inclined fituation,others quite overturned; fome had inet and flopped the courfe of ariver, whofe waters were now forming a great lake. Another river difappeared at the fhock, and returning again overflowed the country. The whole town of Mollochi di Setto, near Terra Nuovo, was detached into the ravine; and a vineyard, of many acres, lay there near it, in perfect order but in an inclined fituation, with a foot path through it. Water-mills being jammed between two detached pieces had been lifted up above the river. Many acres were funk eight or ten feet below the level of the plain, and many raised to the fame height. Cracks parallel to every ravine, indicate that, had the fhocks continued, the like diffeverings would have enfued. The upper foil of the banks of the ravine was a reddish earth, and the under one ve, ry compact, and like a foft ftone. The fhock feems to have acted with greater force on the lower and more compa ftratum than on the upper cultivated cruft, the former having driven, from under the latter, fome hundred yards further in the ravine. Thus a mountain,about 250 feet high,and about 400 feet in diameter,is well attefted to have travelled or flid down the ravine four miles on Feb. 5; on which day the greateft force of the earthquake feems to have been exerted in the neighbourhood of Oppido, and at Cafal Nuova and Terra Nuova. The phænomena exhibited in other parts of the plains of Calabria Ultra are of the fame nature, but in a lefs degree. Sir Wm. Hamilton proceeded from Oppido, through the fame beautiful country and ruined towns and villaAt the ges, to Seminara and Palmi. latter, which flands low and near the fea, 1400 lives were loft, and 4000 barrels of oil (for which it is a flaple) produced a river of oil flowing into the fea. In going over the beautiful woody mountains of Bagnara and Solano, by a road dangerous, both from robbers and precipices, he felt a fmart fmart shock of an earthquake, accompanied by a loud explosion like that of fpringing a mine. At Torre del Pezzolo an epidemical diforder had already manifefted itself. Reggio is "lefs damaged than was expected, though not a houfe is habitable, or inhabited, about 126 perfons having loft their lives. Both in 1770 and 1760 the inhabitants had been driven into barracks by the fame caufe. Here, quitting this delightful but unhappy country (many of whole inhabitants peak no other language but Greek) and the beautiful groves of orange, mulberry, and fig-trees our inquifitive naturalift failed to Meffiad, where he landed May 14. The force of the earthquakes there, as at Reggio,had been nothing to what it was in the plain. All the beautiful front of the Polazzata, or crefcent had been in fome parts totally ruined, in others lefs; and there were cracks in the earth of the quay, part of which is funk above a foot below the level of the fea, which, at the edge of the quay, is fo deep that the largeft fhips can lie alongfide. ny houfes are ftill ftanding, and others little damaged, even in the lower town, but in the upper the fhecks feen to have had fcarcely any effect. Out of 30,000 inhabitants, not above 700 had perifhed; feveral freets were inhabited, and bufinefs going on ; though the generality of the inhabitants were in tents and barracks. Neither the port nor citadel have received any damage. A fmall fish called Cicirelli, like our whitebait, which used to be fcarce and difficult to catch, is, fince the shocks, eafily taken near the furface, and become the Ma • Agrume is the general name of all kinds of orange, lemon, cedrate, and burgamot trees. The fig trees bear twice a year, in June and Auguft. One fingle gentleman, whose chriftian name is Agamemnon, could gather, from a garden of no great extent, 170,000 legions, 200,000 oranges, equal to thofe at Malta, and burgamots enough to produce 200 quarts from their rinds, which, after squeezing, fed the cattle, and gave a strong tafle to their Aefh. common food of the poor. On the 5th of February, and the three following days, the fea, about a quarter of a mile from the citadel, rofe, and boiled in a moft extraordinary manner, and with a moft horrid and alarm ing noife, the water in other parts of the Faro being perfectly calm. On the night between February 5 and 6, a great wave paffed over the point of the entrance of the Faro, carrying off boats, and above 24 people, tearing up trees, and leaving fome hundred weight of fish on the fhore. The prince of Scilla, fearing that the rock of Scilla, on which the town and caffle ftood, might be detached into the fea, as, during the firft fhock of February 5, at noon, part of a rock had been, was returning, with 2473 of his fubjects, to a little port or beacia furrounded by rocks at its foot. About midnight a fecond fhock detached a whole mountain, much higher than that of Scilla, between it and the torre del cavallo, which, falling into the fea, then perfe&ty calm, raifed the wave which broke on the point of the Faro in Sicily, and returning on the beach at Scilla, fwept off or dafhed against the rocks, the unhappy prince and all the people with him, and was immediately followed by one or two more waves lefs confiderable. This wave was at first rumour affirmed to have been formed of boiling water, but all who had been involved in and furvived it, affured Sir Wm. H. they did not feel any fymptom of heat in it; nor did fire flue from any Cracks, as was reported. Returning along the coaft of the Two Calabrias, and the Principato Citra, Sir William found Tropea and Paula little damaged, but all the inhabitants in barracks. At the former, May 15, were fevere but fhort fhocks. There were five during his ftay in Calabria and Sicily, three of them rather alarming, and at Meffina,in the night, he conftantly felt a little tremor of the earth. The refult of these exact enquiries" is, that the prefent earthquakes are occafioned by the operation of a volcano, the feat of which feems to lie deep, either under the bottom of the fea, between the island of Stromboli N' and and the coaft of Calabria, or under the parts of the plain towards Oppido and Terra Nuova. Perhaps an opening may have been made at the bottom of the fea, and moft probably between Stromboli and Calabria Ultra(for from that quarter all agree that the fubterra nean no fes feem to have proceeded, and the volcano of Stromboli, which is op. polite, at the diftance of 50 miles to Pizzo, has (moaked lefs, and thrown up lefs, during the earthquakes, than for fome years pal) and that the foundation of a new island or volcano may have been laid, though it may be ages before it is compleated and appears above the furface of the fea. Among many extraordinary circumftances, we cannot omit fome inftances of long-fafting, occafioned by this calamity. A gil of 16 remained without food 11 days in the rums of a houfe with a child of 5 or 6 months old, which died the fourth day. Two mules and many dogs were in the fame fituation 22 days, and a hen at Meffina 23 days; all perfectly recovered. The Academy of Naples have fent into Calabria 15 of their members, with draughtsmen, for the fole purpofe of giving a fatisfactory and ample account of this great event. "But "unlefs," fays Sir Wm. Hamilton, "they attend, as I did, to the nature "of the foil of the place where the fe "accidents happened, their reports "will generally meet with little cre "dit, except from thofe who are pro"feffed dilettanti of miracles.". what impartial mind does not fee a great conformity between these accounts and our Lord's prediction of events that were to precede (how clofely we are left to conjecture from circumstances) the general 'diffolution of this globe? See Matth. xxiv. 7 i Mark xv. 8; but particularly Luke xxi. 25, 26. And is not the deftru&ion of the cities of the plain, perhaps by the firft earthquake after the creation, recorded in Genefis, xix. 24-28, an exact counterpart of what happened in the plain of Calabria? a vapour, charged with electrical fire, or a kind of inflammable air; an overthrow, and the fmoke of the country afcending like the smoke of a furnace, perhaps an hyperbolical description of what befell Cafal Nuovo and a lake (the Dead Sea) fucceeding the catal trophe; the fame phyfical caufes concurring under divine protection?--Strabo fays (XVI. 764) this tra&t, formerly covered by 13 cities, was chang ed into a lake by earthquakes and explosions of fire, and hot, afphaltic, and fulphureous water, and the rocks made inflammable. Eratofthenes fuppofed, the country fubfiding into lakes was overflowed by a fudden flood of water, as the fea. Innumerable are the earthquakes recorded in hiftory, in a general and fuperficial way. was referved for this age to explore their caufes, and trace their effects in detail. Let us be wife, and confider thefe things. It Count Ippolito's account, in Italian, To the Printers of the BOSTON of the earthquake of Mar. 28, in Calabria, fubjoied to this, takes notice, that this catastrophe was preceeded by fevere and unusual fronts in the winter of 1782, extraordinary drought and intolerable heat in the fummer, and grear continual rains in the autumn, of the fame year, and all through Jinuary 1783. Many times before the fhock the fea rofe and fwelled without the leaft wind.to the great terror of the Efhermen. The volcanoes had been quiet for a confiderable time before, but, on the first earthquake, Etna made an eruption, and in the fecond Stromboli threw out fire. We are fenfible that it is not the fashion of this age to introduce Scripture into any comparifon. But MAGAZINE. VATOR, defires that no more Enigmatical lifts may be inferted in your ufeful MAGAZINE. The Enigmatical lifts are mostly written by the Ladies, and they are not only a neceffary relaxation from the fatigue of attending to domestic concerns, but an amufement for leifure hours. For my own part, I am no admirer of thofe PIECES of LEARNING Called Enigmas, Rebufes, &c. but what of that; am I to monopolize the MAGAZINE to myself? Muft it be formed for my tafte only, who am only one of perhaps fome thoufand readers, every one of whom, differ not more in features than in tafte ?Every publication, of the nature of a MAGAZINE, ought, in my opinion, to confift of as much variety as poffible, in order, that there may be fomething to please every one; and your readers, inftead of being offended that the whole is not to their liking, should (as at an entertainment) pick out fuch and fuch difhes as please their palate, and make a hearty meal on them; and they must be difficult indeed, who cannot find fomething to their fatisfaction in the BOSTON MAGAZINE. I agree with OBSERVATOR, in recommending Mathematical queftions, or any thing calculated not only to amufe, but infruct, and form the mind to virtue. FENELON. To the Editors of the BOSTON A Gentlemen, PIECE figned Obfervator, in your laft Magazine, has offended many of your female fubfcribers; and I cannot forbear faying, that you acted very uncivily, in admitting fofaucy a letter. As it is well known that our fex have long been the admirers and framers of enigmas, we confider any attack upon THEM as an affront offered to us. Why fhould enigmas be excluded from your Magazine, when they afford fo much pleasure? No part of the production,believe me, has been more read or applauded. I vifit in almost every family in town, genteel and vulgar, and from lady down to Dorothy my maid, every female under flanding has been exercif ed in the discovery of thofe two which you have published. The gentlemen indeed affect to despise them; but it is very obvious that they are as much engaged with them as we. A learned man of my acquaintance, spent three hours, one evening, in endeavouring to folve theEnigmatical Bill of fare for Chriftmas. Meeting, however, with no fuccefs, he started up very peevishly Silly things! faid he---fit only for girls. I fufpect this grave character to be the author of Obfervator. His conduct will enable us to give a reafon, why enigmas are greater favourites of the ladies than of the gentlemen. Heaven has been pleafed to endow the men with judgment, folidity and phlegm; while upon the women, it has conferred mercury, fancy and ingenuity. You are laboriufly rational and dull; but we are sprightly and inventive. Hence it is, that we are fond of enigmas, rebuffes and riddles, because we can find them out; and you defpife them, because your great wifdom is not equal to their folution. In faying this, I know I fpeak the fentiments of the greateft part of my fex: If therefore your Reverences mean that we should read your Magazine, you will introduce, into the next number, enigmas and other compofitions adapted to our taste. Obfervator fuggefts, that mathematical queftions ought to fupply the place of our dear pieces; but I hope this will never be the cafe; for the very appearance of thofe things, with their crooked figures and uncouth fcrawls, difguft a female eye. I am informed by my brother, who is very adroit at cyphering, that mathematical learned enigmas: If this is the fact, I queftions in general are no better than think you would act very indifcreetly, in excluding those ingenious queftions, that every body is charmed with, for thofe dry queries, which nobody, exread or regard. cept perhaps your Reverences, will I might enter into a defence of enigmas; but it would be too much like your fex to argue upon the fubject. It is a fufficient reafon for their infertion that we are pleafed with them. Your Reverences may call them a play upon words ; but, pray, are they worfe than than puns, a fpecies of wit which the venerable Dr. ---, fo famous for his fmart fpeeches, and even Sterne and Swift condescend to employ? What thould reader them more exceptionable than alliteration, a figure fo much applauded by the poets? or than the echo to the fenfe, which Pope celebrates fo highly? The merit of thefe things confifts in mere letters and found, as much as that of the enigma. That wit which arifes from fentiment and idea, we will confefs to be moft valuable, but there is also a wit of words which has power to pleafe. I will only add, that feveral young ladies of my acquaintance are burning with impatience, to fee their names in the Magizine, interwoven in fome pretty rebus or enigma. Be not fo cruel as to difappoint their hopes. I do not expect to participate of the fweets of thefe compliments; nor am 1 felfith in making this requeft; as I would acknowledge, with fome degree of mortification, that, though I call myfelf but eight and twenty, my face Joudly proclaims that I am a faded virgin of thirty five. Once, gentle men, I had charms which would have warmed your hearts, had you feen them; but, alafs! they have fled, and no perfon now thinks fit to fatter me either in an enigma, rebus, or even in plain English: SUSANNA. Bofton, January 12th, 1784. For the BOSTON MAGAZINE. Please to communicate the fol- Na full affembly of ladies, where there was a mixture of feveral ages, the conveniencies and inconveniencies of the poop-petticoat happened to be canvaffed with great freedom of converfation. There were only four gentlemen prefent; two of which Ypoke earnestly in the debate, one against the other. FLORIO, a military fpark, of great volubility of speech, employed his wit in defence of the mode. SOPHRONIC, of riper years and fewer words, reafoned against the extravagancy of the fashion. The opinions of the affembly were much divided. In order, therefore, to come to a fair determination, the ladies laid their injunctions upon the two champions to confider the subject maturely, and be ready, by that day seven night, to deliver their fentiments upon the merits of the prefent caufe ; at which time, they engaged themfelves to give them a hearing at nine in the evening. The appointed hour being come, the company ranged themfelves on either hand, according to their different inclinations. On the right fat the grave matrons, and, on the left, fhone the blooming virgins; both parties equally affured of fuccefs, and equally confiding in the abilities of their orator. The damask fettee was placed in the center, at a convenient diftance from the audience; when FLOR10, obferving a profound filence, and an impatience in the looks of his (prightly patroneffes, made his reverences, and, mounting the filken roftrum, harrangued the affembly in the following manner: Ladies and Gentlemen, Congratulate my good fortune, in that I have the honour to speak be fore fo polite an audience upon a ference afford fo large a fcope to elo quence. Were I to handle it inch by theme, whofe diameter and circum inch, my fpeech would (well in proportion to the amplitude of my fubje, and I should find myself encom paffed with a luxuriant circle of tropes and figures, round and magn ficent as the hoop I attempt to praife. I have enquired at the most flourishing ware houfes, and confulted the mot knowing coopers of the female fex; but I cannot difinely learn to whole entenfive genius the ladies are indebted for this invention of the |