Gian Greco a continuous line of precipitous rocks, nearly a mile in
length, tumbled down. The aged Prince of Scilla, after the first great
shock on the 5th of February, persuaded many of his vassals to quit
the dangerous shore, and take refuge in the fishing boats--he himself
showing the example. That same night, however, while many of the people
were asleep in the boats, and others on a flat plain a little above the
sea-level, another powerful shock threw down from the neighboring Mount
Jaci a great mass, which fell with a dreadful crash, partly into the
sea, and partly upon the plain beneath. Immediately the sea rose to a
height of twenty feet above the level ground on which the people were
stationed, and rolling over it, swept away the whole multitude. This
immense wave then retired, but returned with still greater violence,
bringing with it the bodies of the men and animals it had previously
swept away, dashing to pieces the whole of the boats, drowning all that
were in them, and wafting the fragments far inland. The prince with
1,430 of his people perished by this disaster.

It was on the north-eastern shore of Sicily, however, that the greatest
amount of damage was done. The first severe shock, on the 5th of
February, overthrew nearly the whole of the beautiful city of Messina,
with great loss of life. The shore for a considerable distance along the
coast was rent, and the ground along the port, which was before quite
level, became afterwards inclined towards the sea, the depth of the
water having, at the same time, increased in several parts, through the
displacement of portions of the bottom. The quay also subsided about
fourteen inches below the level of the sea, and the houses near it
were much rent. But it was in the city itself that the most terrible
desolation was wrought--a complication of disasters having followed
the shock, more especially a fierce conflagration, whose intensity was
augmented by the large stores of oil kept in the place.

IMMENSE DESTRUCTION

According to official reports made soon after the events, the
destruction caused by the earthquakes of the 5th of February and 28th
of March throughout the two Calabrias was immense. About 320 towns
and villages were entirely reduced to ruins, and about fifty others
seriously damaged. The loss of life was appalling--40,000 having
perished by the earthquakes, and 20,000 more having subsequently died
from privation and exposure, or from epidemi