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conflagrations, torrents of rain, thunder, and lightningaccompanied the earthquakes. The entire elementaryarrangements seemed convulsed and falling into chaos. Onthe night of the 5th of February, at the same moment thatthe earth appeared shaken to its very centre, and towers andpalaces were rocking to and fro, and falling into heaps ofruins, a hurricane of unparalleled fury, contributed to thework of destruction. Balustrades and parapets were carriedfrom the tops of the buildings, to astonishing distances. Aportion of the huge tower of Radicena, at Messina, wasseparated from the top, and carried to the distance of sixtyfeet, although it was of such a size as to contain a portionof the stone stair within it. The sea between Scilla andCharybdis, rose fifty-feet, and suddenly returning to itsagitated bed dragged with it at one fell swoop, flocks, andmen and women and children. In this manner perished theprince of Scilla, who with two thousand persons wascarried into the sea from off the beach where they hadencamped or anchored after the destruction of their habita-tions. Etna and Stromboli vomited forth torrents of fireand lava, without intermission, although Vesuvius remainedunusually tranquil. But fires far more destructive than thevolcanic, spread further desolation over the land. Thebeams and woodwork of the subverted houses falling on tothe kitchen and other fires, caused conflagrations so vastand numerous, that many at the time supposed them tohave originated from the bowels of the earth. Indeed theformation of this opinion although erroneous, was not in-consistent with the concurring appearances. Loud, deep, ex-plosive, rumbling, thunder was almost continually heardbeneath the ground, always as an accompaniment to a shock,but frequently without one. No indication of a comingshock could ever be deduced from the weather or ap-pearance of the atmosphere, as shocks occurred during all
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