r with large jets of water, by the shock
which immediately succeeded.

[Illustration: Fig. 78.

Fissures near Jerocarne, in Calabria, caused by the earthquake of 1783.]

At Jerocarne, a country which, according to the Academicians, was
_lacerated_ in a most extraordinary manner, the fissures ran in every
direction, "like cracks on a broken pane of glass" (see fig. 78); and as
a great portion of them remained open after the shocks, it is very
possible that this country was permanently upraised. It was usual, as we
learn from Dolomieu, for the chasms and fissures throughout Calabria, to
ran parallel to the course of some pre-existing gorges in their
neighborhood.

_Houses engulfed._--In the vicinity of Oppido, the central point from
which the earthquake diffused its violent movements, many houses were
swallowed up by the yawning earth, which closed immediately over them.
In the adjacent district, also, of Cannamaria four farm-houses, several
oil-stores, and some spacious dwelling-houses were so completely
engulfed in one chasm, that not a vestige of them was afterwards
discernible. The same phenomena occurred at Terranuova, S. Christina,
and Sinopoli. The Academicians state particularly, that when deep
abysses had opened in the argillaceous strata of Terranuova, and houses
had sunk into them, the sides of the chasms closed with such violence,
that, on excavating afterwards to recover articles of value, the workmen
found the contents and detached parts of the buildings jammed together
so as to become one compact mass. It is unnecessary to accumulate
examples of similar occurrences; but so many are well authenticated
during this earthquake in Calabria, that we may, without hesitation,
yield assent to the accounts of catastrophes of the same kind repeated
again and again in history, where whole towns are declared to have been
engulfed, and nothing but a pool of water or tract of sand left in their
place.

_Chasm formed near Oppido._--On the sloping side of a hill near Oppido a
great chasm opened; and, although a large quantity of soil was
precipitated into the abyss, together with a considerable number of
olive-trees and part of a vineyard, a great gulf remained after the
shock, in the form of an amphitheatre, 500 feet long and 200 feet deep.
(See fig. 79.)

[Illustration: Fig. 79.

Chasm formed by the earthquake of 1783, near Oppido in Calabria.]

_Dimensions of new fissures and chasms._--According to Grimaldi,