many
fissures and chasms, formed by the first shock of February 5th, were
greatly widened, lengthened, and deepened by the violent convulsions of
March 28th. In the territory of San Fili this observer found a new
ravine, half a mile in length, two feet and a half broad, and
twenty-five feet deep; and another of similar dimensions in the
territory of Rosarno. A ravine _nearly a mile long_, 105 feet broad and
thirty feet deep, opened in the district of Plaisano, where, also, two
gulfs were caused--one in a place called Cerzulle, three-quarters of a
mile long, 150 feet broad, and above _one hundred feet deep_; and
another at La Fortuna, nearly a quarter of a mile long, above thirty
feet in breadth, and no less than 225 feet deep.

[Illustration: Fig. 80.

Chasm in the hill of St. Angelo, near Soriano, in Calabria, caused by
the earthquake of 1783.]

In the district of Fosolano three gulfs opened: one of these measured
300 feet square, and above thirty feet deep; another was nearly half a
mile long, fifteen feet broad, and above thirty-feet deep; the third was
750 feet square. Lastly, a calcareous mountain, called Zefirio, at the
southern extremity of the Italian peninsula, was cleft in two for the
length of nearly half a mile, and an irregular breadth of many feet.
Some of these chasms were in the form of a crescent. The annexed cut
(fig. 80) represents one by no means remarkable for its dimensions,
which remained open by the side of a small pass over the hill of St.
Angelo, near Soriano. The small river Mesima is seen in the foreground.

_Formation of circular hollows and new lakes._--In the report of the
Academy, we find that some plains were covered with circular hollows,
for the most part about the size of carriage-wheels, but often somewhat
larger or smaller. When filled with water to within a foot or two of the
surface, they appeared like wells; but, in general, they were filled
with dry sand, sometimes with a concave surface, and at other times
convex. (See fig. 81.) On digging down, they found them to be
funnel-shaped, and the moist loose sand in the centre marked the tube up
which the water spouted. The annexed cut (fig. 82) represents a section
of one of these inverted cones when the water had disappeared, and
nothing but dry micaceous sand remained.

[Illustration: Fig. 81.

Circular hollows in the plain of Rosarno, formed by the earthquake of
1783.]

[Illustration: Fig. 82.

Section of one of the cir