Earthquakes presage the outburst; loud explosions are heard; rifts
open in the sides of the mountain; smoke, sand, ashes, and scoriae are
discharged; the action localizes itself in one or more craters;
cinders are thrown out and accumulate around the crater in a conical
form; ultimately lava rises through the new cone, frequently breaking
down one side of it where there is least resistance, and flowing over
the surrounding country. Out of the seventy-eight eruptions mentioned
above, a comparatively small number have been of extreme violence,
while many of them have been of a slight and harmless character.

Italy does not contain a more beautiful or fertile province than
Calabria, the celebrated region which the ancients called Magna
Grecia, where once flourished Crotona, Tarentum, Sybaris, and so many
other prosperous cities. Situated between the volcanoes of Vesuvius
and AEtna, Calabria has always been much exposed to the destructive
influence of earthquakes, but the most terrible shock ever felt in the
province was that of February 5, 1783. The ground was agitated in all
directions, swelling like the waves of the ocean. Nothing could
withstand such shocks, and not a building upon the surface remained
erect. The beautiful city of Messina, the commercial metropolis of
Sicily, was reduced to a heap of ruins.

Upon March 4, a fresh shock, almost as violent as the first, completed
the work of destruction. The number of persons who perished in
Calabria and Sicily during these two earthquakes is estimated at
80,000 and 320 of the 365 towns and villages which Calabria contained
were destroyed. The greater number of those who lost their lives were
buried amid the ruins of the houses, but many perished in fires that
were kindled in most of the towns, particularly in Oppido, where the
flames were fed by great magazines of oil. Not a few, especially among
the peasantry dwelling in the country, were suddenly engulfed in
fissures. Many who were only half buried in the ruins, and who might
have been saved had there been help at hand, were left to die a
lingering death from cold and hunger. Four Augustine monks at
Terranova perished thus miserably. Having taken refuge in a vaulted
sacristy, they were entombed in it alive by the masses of rubbish, and
lingered for four days, during which their cries for help could be
heard, till death put an end to their sufferings.

Of still more thrilling interest was the case of the Marchioness