inhabitants, upwards of 8,000 in number, were precipitated
into the gulf, which immediately closed over its prey.

EARTHQUAKES IN CALABRIA

Of the numerous other examples of destructive earthquakes which might
be chosen from Old World annals, it will not be amiss to append a brief
account of those which took place in Calabria, Italy, in 1783. These,
while less wide-spread in their influence, were much longer in duration
than the Lisbon cataclysm, since they continued, at intervals, from the
5th of February until the end of the year. The shocks were felt all over
Sicily and as far north as Naples, but the area of severe convulsion was
comparatively limited, not exceeding five hundred square miles.

The centre of disturbance seems to have been under the town of Oppido in
the farther Calabria, and it extended in every direction from that
spot to a distance of about twenty-two miles, with such violence as to
overthrow every city, town and village lying within that circle. This
ruin was accomplished by the first shock on the 5th of February. The
second, of equal violence, on the 28th of March, was less destructive,
only because little or nothing had been left for it to overthrow.

At Oppido the motion was in the nature of a vertical upheaval of the
ground, which was accompanied by the opening of numerous large chasms,
into some of which many houses were ingulfed, the chasms closing over
them again almost immediately. The town itself was situated on the
summit of a hill, flanked by five steep and difficult slopes; it was
so completely overthrown by the first shock that scarcely a fragment of
wall was left standing. The hill itself was not thrown down, but a fort
which commanded the approach to the place was hurled into the gorge
below. It was on the flats immediately surrounding the site of the town
and on the rising grounds beyond them that the great fissures and chasms
were opened. On the slope of one of the hills opposite the town there
appeared a vast chasm, in which a large quantity of soil covered with
vines and olive-trees was engulfed. This chasm remained open after the
shock, and was somewhat in the form of an amphitheatre, 500 feet long
and 200 feet in depth.

MOST CALAMITOUS OF THE LANDSLIPS

The most calamitous of the landslips occurred on the sea-coast of the
Straits of Messina, near the celebrated rock of Scilla, where huge
masses fell from the tall cliffs, overwhelming many villas and gardens.
At