s, or spreading into marshes;
disappearing, to rise again in new streams, through other banks, or
running at large, to lay bare and desolate the most fertile fields.
Nothing retained its ancient form, cities, roads, and boundaries
vanished,--so that the inhabitants were bewildered as if in an unknown
land. The works of art and of nature, the elaborations of centuries,
together with many a stream and rock, coeval perhaps with the world
itself, were in a single instant destroyed and overthrown....
Whirlwinds, tempests, the flames of volcanoes, and of burning edifices,
rain, wind, and thunder, accompanied the movements of the earth: all the
forces of nature were in activity, and it seemed as if all its laws were
suspended, and the last hour of created things at hand. In the meantime,
the sea between Scylla, Charybdis, and the coasts of Reggio and Messina,
was raised many fathoms above its usual level; overflowing its banks,
and then, in its return to its channel, carrying away men and beasts. By
these means, two thousand persons lost their lives on Scylla alone, who
were either congregated on the sands, or had escaped in boats, from the
dangers of the dry land. Etna and Stromboli were in more than usual
activity: but this hardly excited attention, amidst greater and graver
disasters. A worse fire than that of the volcanoes resulted from the
incidents of the earthquake; for the beams of the falling houses being
ignited by the burning heaths, the flames, fanned by the winds, were so
vast and fierce, that they seemed to issue from the bosom of the earth.
The heavens, alternately cloudy or serene, had given no previous sign of
the approaching calamity; but a new source of suffering followed it, in
a thick fog, which obscured the light of the day, and added to the
darkness of night. Irritating to the eyes, injurious to the respiration,
fetid, and immoveable, it hung over the two Calabrias for more than
twenty days,--an occasion of melancholy, disease, and annoyance, both to
man and to animals....

At the first shock, no token, in heaven or on earth, had excited
attention; but at the sudden movement, and at the aspect of destruction,
an overwhelming terror seized on the general mind, insomuch, that the
instinct of self-preservation was suspended, and men remained
thunderstricken and immoveable. On the return of reason, the first
sentiment was a sort of joy at the partial escape; but they soon gave
place to grief for the loss of