ull six broad, was by this
commotion swallowed up in the bowels of the earth. Forty villages were
destroyed, some being engulfed and some covered by the substances thrown
out on this occasion, and 2957 of the inhabitants perished. A
proportionate number of cattle were also killed, and most of the
plantations of cotton, indigo, and coffee in the adjacent districts were
buried under the volcanic matter. This catastrophe appears to have
resembled, although on a grander scale, that of the ancient Vesuvius in
the year 79. The cone was reduced in height from 9000 to about 5000
feet; and, as vapors still escape from the crater on its summit, a new
cone may one day rise out of the ruins of the ancient mountain, as the
modern Vesuvius has risen from the remains of Somma.[675]

_St. Domingo_, 1770.--During a tremendous earthquake which destroyed a
great part of St. Domingo, innumerable fissures were caused throughout
the island, from which mephitic vapors emanated and produced an
epidemic. _Hot springs_ burst forth in many places where there had been
no water before; but after a time they ceased to flow.[676]

In a previous earthquake, in November, 1751, a violent shock destroyed
the capital, Port au Prince, and part of the coast, twenty leagues in
length, sank down, and has ever since formed a bay of the sea.[677]

_Hindostan_, 1762.--The town of Chittagong, in Bengal, was violently
shaken by an earthquake, on the 2d of April, 1762, the earth opening in
many places, and throwing up water and mud of a sulphureous smell. At a
place called Bardavan, a large river was dried up; and at Bar Charra,
near the sea, a tract of ground sunk down, and 200 people, with all
their cattle, were lost. It is said, that sixty square miles of the
Chittagong coast suddenly and permanently subsided during this
earthquake, and that Ces-lung-Toom, one of the Mug mountains, entirely
disappeared, and another sank so low, that its summit only remained
visible. Four hills are also described as having been variously rent
asunder, leaving open chasms from thirty to sixty feet in width. Towns
which subsided several cubits, were overflowed with water; among others,
Deep Gong, which was submerged to the depth of seven cubits. Two
volcanoes are said to have opened in the Secta Cunda hills. The shock
was also felt at Calcutta.[678] While the Chittagong coast was sinking,
a corresponding rise of the ground took place at the island of Ramree,
and at Cheduba (see M