any instances are on record of such regions having suffered materially from the occurrence of these phenomena. Judging from these principles, we would be led to consider the tract of country situated midway between the Allegany mountains and the Atlantic ocean, less subject to misfortunes from this source, than that which is washed by the waters of the Mississippi. On the other hand, the situations most liable to suffer from earthquakes, are those that lie adjacent to active or extinguished volcanos. Hence the frequent visitations of these terrible convul sions in Sicily, Italy, Iceland, Anatolia, the whole tract of the Andes, the country lying to the Southward of Behring's straits, and other volcanic regions of the globe. We shall again refer to the affinity between volcanos and earthquakes, when treating of the causes of these latter phenomena.

Severe earthquakes occur, we think, most frequently during spring and autumn. In the course of the summer and winter months, they are more rare. It might be easily demonstrated, that, in point of time, they are marked by a striking coincidence with the lunar sizyges. On this point, however, circumstances will not permit us, at present, to enlarge. We may perhaps, resume the consideration of it at some future period.

By a reference to history we learn, that not only particular countries, but certain periods of the world, have been unusually marked by the occurrence of earthquakes. In this respect the reign of Justinian, during a part of the sixth century, appears to have been distinguished above all other times. Each year of that period of desolation, says the historian, is marked by the repetition of earthquakes, of such duration that Constantinople has been shaken above forty days; of such extent, that the shock has been communicated to the whole surface of the globe, or, at least of the Roman empire. An impulsive or vibratory motion was felt; enormous chasms were opened; huge and heavy bodies were discharged into the air; the sea alternately advanced and retreated beyond its ordinary bounds; and a mountain was torn from Libanus, and cast into the waves, where it protected as a mole the new harbour of Botrys, in Phoenicia. Two hundred and fifty thousand persons are said to have perished, on the 20th of May 526, in the earthquake of Antioch, whose domestic mul

titudes were swelled by the conflux of strangers to the festival of the Ascension-The cause we will not, now, attempt to investigate; but we think it clearly appears, that in former ages, the calamities resulting from this source were much more frequent as well as more extensive, than they are at present.

Approximated, however, in their horrors and devastations, to the severest earthquakes of the earlier ages, are three that have occurred in modern times, whose histories have been transmitted to us in ample detail. These are, the earthquake of Port-Royal, in Jamaica, in 1692; that of Lisbon, in 1755; and that of Calabria, in 1783. To such of our readers as have not been in habits of particular inquiry on this subject, but whose curiosity may have been awakened by recent occurrences, we flatter ourselves that the statement of a few facts in relation to these calamities, will not prove uninteresting.

The earthquake of 1692 destroyed, in two minutes, the town of Port-Royal, at that time the capital of the island of Jamaica. The gulf, into which the houses were thus suddenly precipitated, extended to the depth of forty fathoms. A noise resembling the loudest subterranean thunder contributed to deepen the horrors of the moment. The streets rose in frightful undulations, like the waves of the sea, first elevating the houses, and immediately dejecting them into the yawning chasms. The wells spouted their waters into the air with the most violent agitation. The sea burst far over its ordinary bounds, deluging or sweeping off every thing that stood in its way. The fissures in the earth were numerous, extensive, and of great depth. In some of them the inhabitants of the place were swallowed up at once and heard of no more. In others, the earth suddenly closing, caught the wretched sufferers by the middle as they were descending, and crushed them to death. In several instances, individuals had descended as far as the neck, when the earth closed and thus destroyed them. In others again, they were swallowed to a great depth in one chasm, and immediately afterwards ejected by another. A few persons had even the fortune, which we might almost denominate miraculously good, to escape unhurt, after having experienced these perilous alternations. Some of the clefts in the earth spouted up immense quantities of water,

drowning many persons whom the other forms of danger had spared. From having been clear and serene, the sky is reported to have assumed, in the space of a minute, the fiery aspect of a glowing oven.

The whole island of Jamaica trembled under the gigantic convulsion. About twelve miles from the sea, the earth opening, poured forth an abundant torrent of water. Scarcely a building stood secure throughout the island. The face of the country experienced, in some parts, the most singular mutations. An entire plantation, without sustaining any material injury, was removed nearly half a mile from its original situation. Several mountain's tumbled into the adjacent valleys, with a crash that resounded to an immense distance. These enormous masses of matter, falling into rivers, obstructed the current of their waters, and forced them to hollow out new channels. In effecting this, they swept before them rocks and woods and houses and fieldsall that lay in their way, whether the productions of nature or the monuments of art. To complete the calamities resulting from this earthquake, a pestilential disease broke out soon afterwards, in consequence of the stench of stagnant waters, and the poisonous exhalations emitted from the earth, which hurried to the grave a large proportion of the surviving inhabitants.

The famous earthquake which laid Lisbon in ruins, occurred on the 1st of November 1755. For a considerable time previously to it the character of the seasons had been somewhat pe culiar. The four years immediately preceding that in which the catastrophe occurred, had been unusually dry. Springs and fountains had failed throughout the country to an alarming degree; and the effects of the drought were deeply impressed on the vegetable kingdom. During this period the city of Lisbon had experienced tremors of the earth, slight indeed, but frequent beyond example. The year 1755 was marked by numerous and superabundant falls of rain; and the weather throughout the summer was unusually cool. For forty days previously to the earthquake, the sky had been, for the most part, clear and serene. On the day immediately preceding it, a remarkable gloominess prevailed in the atmosphere; and the sun was dimly visible through a portentous obscurity. Early in the morning

of the ever memorable and tragical day, a thick fog arose and hovered for a while over the surrounding country, but was dissipated at length by the rays of the sun. A profound calm now prevailed in the atmosphere, the sea was unusually tranquil, and the weather was marked with summer heat. In the midst of this seeming pause of nature, at 35 minutes past nine in the morning, a frightful subterranean noise arose, and a tremendous earthquake assailed the city, dashing to the ground a great number of buildings. At first, the shocks were short and quick; but they soon changed to a kind of vibratory motion, tossing the houses from side to side, with a degree of violence that nothing could resist. In the space of about six minutes, the greatest part of the city was demolished, and 60,000 of its inhabitants buried under the ruins. The effects in the river Tagus deserve to be noticed. At the commencement of the earthquake, those who were in boats about a mile from the city, perceived a noise and experienced a sensation, as if their vesssels were a-ground, although the depth of the water was several fathoms. Vessels of all sizes were driven from their moorings, and tossed about with the utmost violence, striking or appearing to strike against the ground. So prodigious were the undulations of the earth, that, in many places, the bed of the river rose above the surface of its agitated waters. A new quay, covered with a vast concourse of people, sunk in an instant, to an unfathomable depth. It is remarkable, that not a single corpse out of the whole number ever rose again to the surface. The bar of the river was, at first, laid dry from shore to shore; but, the sea soon afterwards rolling in like a mountain, the water instantly rose to the height of fifty feet above its usual level. Another violent shock, which took place about noon of the same day, aided in completing the ruin of the place.

This earthquake was not only violent in its effects, but extensive in its prevalence. It shook almost the whole peninsula from the Pyrenees to Cape St Vincent, and from the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay, to the shores of the Mediterranean.

St. Ubes, a sea-port town about twenty miles to the southward of Lisbon, was entirely swallowed up, partly by the opening of the earth, and partly by the deluge that broke over it from the sea.

At Cadiz a very singular phenomenon occurred. Not long after the commencement of the earthquake, a wave sixty feet higher than had ever been witnessed in the same place before, was discovered at the distance of eight miles, rolling towards the city with the most threatening aspect. It dashed over the rocks that defend the western part of the town, struck the city walls, beat in the breastwork, and carried destruction as far as it extended. Immediately afterwards the sea retreated far beneath its usual level. This unprecedented ebbing and flowing was four times repeated in the course of the day.

The effects of the earthquake of Lisbon were not confined to the continent of Europe. They extended to England, Scotland, and Ireland, producing in each of these places very striking com. motions in the waters of lakes, rivers, and bays. These commotions were the more singular, and to those who beheld them the more surprising, inasmuch as they were accompanied by no perceptible tremors of the ground.

Shocks were also very sensibly felt by vessels navigating the Atlantic, at the distance of many hundred leagues from shore, and in a depth of water that no length of line could fathom. The sensation experienced on these occasions was, as in the river Tagus, similar to that of running aground.

The earthquakes of Calabria were the most tremendous in modern times. They continued, with irregular intermissions, from the beginning of the year 1783 to the close of the year 1786. The severest shocks, however, and the most signal destruction occurred in February and March of the former year.

The summer of 1782, the year preceding the commencement of the earthquakes, having been unusually hot and dry, was succeeded by an autumn peculiarly rainy and cold. During the first part of the winter the weather was mild. On the 28th of October, the south of Italy was swept by a violent and destructive hurricane.

Although a tremor of the ground is said to have been felt on the first of January 1783, yet the earthquakes are not to be considered as having actually commenced, till the fifth of February. The shocks were preceded by phenomena which circumstances induce us to regard as electrical. The atmosphere was