Great Earthquakes of the Old World

GREAT misfortunes — wars, famines, pestilences, floods, and those more mysterious accidents which unfix the firm-set earth, — hold the first place in the records of every people. The prosperous harvest, the introduction of a new element of culture, the advent of any blessing, finds little place there. Forming so large a part of the chronicles of man, it is by no means surprising that disasters should be used as the best landmarks by which to divide the centuries, and to mark the great epochs of history. If earthquakes had brought happiness and plenty, it is to be feared that it would have been a hard matter to gather materials for a history of them. As it is, their record has been only too deeply graven on the memory and character of every people subjected to their action.

The untiring industry of Professor Perrey, of the University of Dijon in France, and the long-continued and able researches of Mr. Charles Mallet, of Dublin, have given us clear information, not only concerning the true nature of the phenomena of earthquakes, but of the times of their occurrence, since the beginning of existing human records. Mr. Mallet first performed the important task of bringing together into one list a brief account of every earthquake disturbance of which the record was accessible to him, giving in his catalogue the date, locality, direction, duration, and number of shocks of the convulsion, the accompanying phenomena of the sea and air, and finally, the authority originally recording the event. This catalogue sets before us all that is known of importance concerning convulsive movements of the earth from the sixteenth century before Christ up to the year 1843.

In this period of three thousand four hundred years nearly seven thousand shocks are recorded. It is evident from the catalogue that but a small fraction of the shocks which have occurred in these centuries have left us any history. For the sixteen centuries before the Christian era, we have imperfect notice of only fifty-seven shocks, or about three a century, while for the last fifty years of the list we have a rate of about four thousand a century. Many of the items which make up this appalling total are doubtless different accounts of the same shock ; but when we recollect that not one-twentieth part of the earth’s surface was, during this half-century, so narrowly watched by investigators that no noticeable shock would escape observation, we cannot resist the conviction that, far from being an exaggeration, this large ratio does not adequately represent the shocks which have occurred during the last fifty years. Allowing that one fourth of the observations are repetitions, and supposing that only one tenth of the shocks which have affected the different parts of the earth’s surface have been recorded, we are compelled to infer that the earth’s surface was affected by thirty thousand shocks during the last century. Inasmuch as we know nothing concerning the relative frequency of shocks on the sea floor and land surface, this number is possibly far from the truth. It is likely, however, to be much nearer the real number of shocks than that given in the catalogue above mentioned.

The rapid increase in the number of recorded earthquakes, as we advance from the earliest observations to the present day, is well shown in the following table, which is extracted from the third report of Mr. Mallet on the facts of earthquake phenomena.

It is certainly not to be believed that earthquakes have really increased in the ratio we must suppose, in case we assume that the lists from which this table was compiled give anything like a correct representation of the relative frequency of shocks at successive’periods. It is much more reasonable to suppose that the apparent increase is to be attributed to the greater accuracy of the record, as we advance from the earliest times to the present day. This table is an impressive measure of the rapid increase in the ability to observe the phenomena of the earth, and to transmit the record to succeeding generations.

Part of the imperfection of the record in earlier times is due to the fact that, of the many thousand shocks in each century, not over the one-hundredth part are of such violence as to be long remembered for their effect. Thus the earliest records comprise only those disturbances which proved of great desolating power, or which were so connected with human affairs as to be deemed omens or judgments. It is only since the middle of the sixteenth century that telluric phenomena have been observed in the spirit of scientific investigation. The earliest recorded earthquake is that which is mentioned in the Book of Exodus as having attended the promulgation of the Mosaic law. From the obscure description, we may conclude that there took place something like a volcanic eruption, attended by the usual shock. The geological character of Mount Sinai accords well with the phenomena attributed to it; and although there is no evidence of any considerable eruptions within a time geologically so recent, there is no question of its true volcanic nature, nor is it improbable that sufficient activity to have produced just the phenomena described may have existed at that time without leaving any traces of activity. It is difficult to imagine any combination of circumstances better calculated to produce an overwhelming impression on an ignorant and imaginative people, than the events which Scripture asserts accompanied the giving of the law. Coming from a region of plains, where their previous experience had shown them only the most uniform operation of natural agents, — where even the annual flood of the great river came with a regularity which took away from it all convulsive character,—this impressible people was suddenly confronted with a most imposing volcanic mountain. And there, while the mount poured forth the flames of an eruption and the ground heaved beneath their feet, Moses proclaimed those laws which sank so deep into the hearts of his people. Thus the code of laws which has had the greatest and most far-reaching effect of any ever given to man was stamped upon his mind by the awful phenomena of a volcanic eruption and an earthquake shock.

Four other events mentioned in the Old Testament seem to indicate the action of earthquake forces. The first of these is described in Numbers xvi., when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were swallowed up by the opening earth ; but the description of the circumstances does not make it quite clear what was the precise nature of the event which the historian meant to record. At a later time, near the close of the wandering in the desert, we have the singular account of the overthrow of the walls of Jericho, which is probably a confused description of earthquake action. After a lapse of six centuries, or about 900 B. c., we are again told of an earthquake, which is strangely described as a great and strong wind which rent the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks. But for the context, which puts the nature of the event beyond doubt, one might feel a doubt as to the character of the force displayed. A few years later there was probably a considerable convulsion in Judaea, inasmuch as we find in Amos i. 1, and Zechariah xiv. 5, events dated from an earthquake shock which took place during the reign of Uzziah, King of Judah. A very severe convulsion desolated Palestine about 33B B. C.; there is no mention of it in the Scriptures, but profane writers state that thirty thousand persons lost their lives.

In the New Testament there is a single earthquake recorded, namely, that which occurred on the day of the crucifixion. The description of the events connected with this shock, though brief, is quite in accordance with the usual results of earthquake action. The rending of the veil of the temple, the quaking of the earth, the sundering of the rocks, are phenomena which can be referred to no other agent. It is not a little remarkable that the two most important events in the history of the Jewish nation, if not of humanity, the giving of the Mosaic law and the death of Christ, should have been accompanied by the awful phenomena of earthquake shocks. Those who believe that the circumstances which surrounded these events are quite mythical must still find this an interesting fact; for it would, if that view were correct, show how deep an impression these mysterious convulsions had made on the minds of the Jews.

We have evidence of the occurrence of disastrous earthquakes in Italy at a date almost as early as that which attended the promulgation of the Mosaic law. Aristotle quotes from Sotion mention of a convulsion in Central Italy about 1450 B. C., during which a city was buried in a lake produced by the shock. From this early date onwards this unfortunate peninsula continues to furnish a very large percentage of the records of earthquake disturbances.

Livy records an extensive convulsion in the Roman territories, in the year 459 B. C., which was accompanied by many prodigies, such as an ox speaking. Innumerable fables are generated by all great disturbances, now as well as in ancient times, and superstition is thus promoted. To Livy we owe also the account of the earthquake which ravaged Italy on the day and in the very hours when the battle of Lake Thrasymene was being fought. Many cities were overwhelmed and rivers turned from their course ; yet, if we may believe the historian, the contending armies did not notice the shock, so intense was the battle. Probably it was the same convulsion which it is said destroyed one hundred towns in Libya in the same year. In the year following this great shock there are fifty-seven mentioned as having occurred in Italy alone. These recurring shocks are to be remarked in connection with most great convulsions of the earth.

The Roman annals supply us with accounts of about twenty important earthquakes between that last mentioned and the beginning of the Christian era. Many of these were violent convulsions, but the history of them is not minute enough to make any of them worthy of especial notice. Our accounts of most other regions during the ante-Christian era are naturally more obscure and incomplete than those of Italy and Syria. Greece suffered much less from earthquakes than either of these countries. About 550 B. C. a portion of Mount Taygetos was thrown down, and in 425 B. C. the shores of Eubœa and Atalanta were swept by great earthquake waves. Other great shocks are recorded as having occurred in 282 B. C., but the peninsula has never been ravaged by an earthquake comparable to many which have affected Italy. The eastern islands of the Mediterranean have suffered far more than the Grecian peninsula ; about 323 B. c. the island of Chryse, near Lemnos, sank beneath the sea. About 282 B. C., the city of Lysimachia was destroyed ; a half-century later the Colossus of Rhodes, a capital subject for earthquake action, was overthrown.

We find mention of several important earthquakes in China before the Christian era ; in 57 B. c. one recorded by Du Halde threw masses from the mountains, filling many valleys.

In the sixty-third year of the Christian era occurred the earthquake which nearly ruined Herculaneum and Pompeii, and did a great deal of damage to the other cities around the base of Mount Vesuvius. This convulsion seems to have been a precursor of the awakening of Vesuvius from its long slumber; sixteen years later, after a not very severe shock, the volcano overwhelmed Herculaneum in a torrent of mud and buried Pompeii in its ashes. The imperfect records of the next five hundred years give us frequent accounts of earthquakes in the Italian peninsula. That of 325, which destroyed twelve towns in Campania, and the great and long-continued disturbance of 446, which lasted for six months and gave a succession of shocks felt throughout the civilized world, were the most important.

To the division of the Roman Empire, and the transfer to Constantinople of a class of studious observers and chroniclers among the clergy, we owe a list of the severe shocks which took place along the shores of the Bosphorus. Between 363 and 1082 we find mention of about fifty earthquakes in this region, some of great severity, but none so fatal to life as those of Italy. From this date until the downfall of the Eastern Empire, in 1453, there occurred but one great earthquake within its limits ; this happened in 1346, and caused much destruction. During the darkest part of the Middle Ages the Italian records are much less numerous, and the dates less clearly determined, than during the earlier times. The sleep of the nations was so profound, that the shock of the earthquake and the glare of the volcano passed unheeded. From the year 586 to the close of the first millennium there are about a dozen shocks noticed in Mallet’s catalogue ; and of these, that which occurred in 1615, followed by a general pestilence and famine, and that of 896, which was so severe at Rome as to ruin the Basilica of St. John Lateran, are perhaps the most noteworthy. In 1169 there was a severe shock felt over Calabria and a part of Sicily, causing the destruction of many thousand lives. The shock of 1184 did more to ruin the beautiful amphitheatre of Verona than all the ravages of time and the barbarian ; most of the outer wall was shaken down. In the beginning of September, 1186, there occurred an earthquake which seems to have been one of the most extensive ever recorded, proving very destructive from England to Sicily. A very violent series of shocks occurred in 1349, which did great damage throughout Southern Italy. On December 5, 1456, the kingdom of Naples was visited by a great earthquake shock, which destroyed many towns and killed sixty thousand people. In 1626, Southern Italy was visited by another destructive shock, the city of Naples being very much injured and seventeen thousand lives lost. Naples was again nearly ruined by the shock of April 23, 1687, but we have no estimate of the loss of life. Six years later Calabria and Sicily were ravaged by a series of shocks which ruined forty-three considerable towns, overthrew nine hundred and seventytwo churches and convents, and destroyed ninety-three thousand lives. In the early part of the next century the provinces of the Abruzzi, on the eastern shore of the peninsula, were visited by an earthquake which destroyed thirty-six towns and killed fifteen thousand people. The most important telluric convulsion of the century was the series of shocks that began in Calabria in February, 1783, and continued with varying force for four years afterwards. In geographical range and in the completeness of the destruction it accomplished it was inferior to the earthquakes of preceding centuries ; yet it has for the student an especial interest, inasmuch as it was during these four years that the first determined efforts were made to ascertain something of the laws of earthquake phenomena. The intense interest which this convulsion excited in the scientific world, and the zeal with which numerous commissions and individual observers hastened to the field, even while the severe shocks were constantly recurring, show how rapid had been the growth of the scientific spirit during the eighteenth century. We owe the most important of the observations to four persons whom circumstances or their own acquirements especially fitted for the work. Francesco Grimaldi, an officer of the household of the king of Naples, drew up a very valuable memoir on the events of the earthquake. Pignatero, a physician residing at the centre of the destruction, made a careful record of every movement, from which we learn that nine hundred and forty-nine distinct shocks occurred during the four years in which the disturbance continued. Sir William Hamilton, who visited the region during the continuance of the shocks, gathered a large amount of valuable information concerning the details of the catastrophe. The French naturalist, Dolmieu, also visited Calabria, and wrote a valuable memoir on its earthquakes, with some very important considerations upon the connection between great earthquake shocks and the formation of valleys by the dislocations of strata which they produce. The valuable works of the above-named scientific men, and of many of less note, made this earthquake a starting-point for those careful studies of earthquake action which, within less than a century, have given us a science of seismology.

Taking the city of Oppido as a centre, a radius of twenty-five miles would include the whole region where these shocks produced the most destructive effects. Within this area the destruction was complete, every town and village being ruined. Over forty thousand lives were lost in the shocks, and more than half that number by the pestilences which, as in all such calamities, followed from the privations of the survivors. In this earthquake the sea vied with the land in destructive energy. The aged Prince of Scilla, who ruled a little province on the shores of the Straits of Messina, alarmed by the first shock, persuaded a great part of his people to betake themselves to their boats for safety. During the night of the 5th of February, a severe shock rent the summit of Mount Jaci asunder, and hurled a prodigious mass of rock on to the plain and into the sea. The wave caused thereby swept the boats of the sleeping Prince and his subjects against the shore, and he, with fifteen hundred of his people, was lost.

In 1857 occurred one of the most memorable earthquakes which have ever desolated the unfortunate region of Southern Italy. The area affected was far more extensive than that affected by the shocks of 1793. The region where the destruction of the towns was complete was of the form of a regular oval, having its greatest length of fifty miles from north to south, and a diameter of about twenty miles from east to west. Within these limits over fifty towns were destroyed, and from fifteen to twenty thousand persons killed. Beyond the area of the most severe shocks the violence of the disturbance rapidly diminished, until at Naples, distant about fifty miles from the field of the greatest activity, the shocks quite lost their destructive force. If during the earthquake of 1793 the systematic study of the phenomenon may be said to have begun, the data on which to found seismology as a science were acquired during the convulsion of 1857.

Immediately on receipt of the news of its occurrence, Mr. Charles Mallet, of Dublin, who for many years had made earthquakes a subject of laborious investigation, sought and obtained the assistance of the Royal Society, and proceeded at once to examine the results of the shocks with a degree of patience and skill which has rarely been equalled in similar researches. He was enabled to determine in the most satisfactory manner the precise direction from which the shock arrived at the surface of the earth at a great many points. A simple calculation then sufficed to give, with an approximation to accuracy, the position of the point within the interior from which the shock started ; so that this method of calculation, first devised and applied by Mr. Mallet, will enable us always, where observations can be sufficiently multiplied, to ascertain the point of origin of the earthquake shock. Other calculations, based also upon the disturbances which the shock had effected, afforded much valuable information concerning the precise nature of the movements which take place in an earthquake.

A very large number of earthquakes have occurred in the peninsula of Italy, but we have mentioned here only those which have proved very destructive to life and property. There is good reason to believe that over two hundred and fifty shocks, of sufficient power to overthrow towns and destroy large numbers of human lives, have occurred within the Calabrian earthquake area since the beginning of the Christian era. The following table ¹ shows the shocks of this violent nature which have been recorded since the latter part of the twelfth century : —

1181 1537 1620 1683 1753 1812 1230 1544 1623 1687 1756 1814 1282 1549 1626 1688 1759 1818 1343 1550 1638 1693 1767 1826 1349 1551 1640 1694 1446 1559 1644 1697 1777 1835 1448 1561 1646 1702 1782 1836 1450 1594 1652 1703 1783 1841 1454 1596 1654 1706 1784 1847 1456 1599 1659 1731 1789 1851 1460 1602 1660 1732 1805 1854 1486 1609 1662 1743 1806 1856 1509 1614 1670 1744 1807 1857 1523 1617 1683 1746

These fourscore convulsions have all occurred within less than seven centuries, and in an area of not more than two hundred English miles in length by one hundred and sixty wide. The table does not include the many minor shocks which, though they may have brought dire fear to the inhabitants, did not prove memorably destructive.

Our account of the Italian earthquakes, though very brief, is far more detailed than it will be possible to make, that of the earthquakes of any other region; even the space allowed to the history of those of Italy would be unwarrantably great, were it not desirable to afford some idea of the conditions of human existence when subjected to these convulsions.

The first recorded earthquake disturbance north of the Alps took place in A. D. 169, when the shock affected parts of Germany. Several occurred within the next four centuries, only one of which was sufficiently remarkable to warrant especial notice. A portion of a mountain near the Rhone, which Von Hoff identifies as the Dent du Midi, in the Valais, near the Lake of Geneva, after giving forth for some days a bellowing sound, fell with all the houses and men upon it into the stream below. This account may have reference to one of the frequent falls of mountain masses occurring in Switzerland. The whole of Switzerland has been liable to earthquakes of average intensity, but, owing to the general use of wooden buildings in the mountain districts, the destruction in many cases has been less than it would have been in Italy. The region about Bâle seems to have been particularly liable to shocks, though most of them have been of slight destructive power. The valley of the Rhone, above Martigny, has, on the other hand, experienced several shocks, more than one of them of sufcient force to produce much damage. The shock of March 1, 1584, was one of the most destructive ; it seems to have had a singular effect on the waters of the Lake of Geneva, raising them in some places as much as twenty feet above their ordinary level. This phenomenon has been attributed to those peculiar movements of the waters of that lake termed seiches, which are probably caused by sudden changes of atmospheric pressure at different points, though such a cause could not account for so great a change of level. In 1618 a mountain called Cento, in the Grisons, was shaken down by an earthquake, and destroyed twelve hundred lives. The greatest and most destructive shock from which Switzerland has ever suffered was that of 1356, which nearly ruined the town of Bâle. After the shock the ruins took fire and burned for several days. In 1601 another great shock occurred near the same region, and for a while obstructed the course of the Reuss at Lucerne.

The only earthquake which has ever caused a great loss of life in Germany was that of 1510, which ruined the town ot Nordlingen in Bavaria, destroying over two thousand lives. In 1590, Prague and Vienna were greatly damaged, though the loss of life seems to have been small. The year 1681 brought a severe shock, which caused great alarm, but little damage, throughout Germany. In 1737, Caralswich, in Suabia, was visited by a very remarkable series of shocks. The chronicles say that the mountains were covered with a thick veil of mist, through which a dim light shone. The earth was also considerably warmer than usual, and retained its heat even after the return of cold weather.

The territory of France has as a whole been as happily exempt from devastating earthquakes as the Germanic region. Although the whole area, especially the southern portion, has been from time to time visited by shocks of ordinary force, none have had sufficient power to produce destructive results. It is recorded that a convulsion occurred in Franche Comte, in 1218, in which a mountain opened and swallowed up five thousand people, but the accident may not have been due to an earthquake. Nine years later, in the Pays d’Aix (Bouches du Rhone), the fall of immense masses of rock from the mountains is said to have caused the loss of five thousand lives. This accident is attributed to an earthquake. During the past six centuries, the southern part of France has been frequently shaken, but no great damage has been done by the shocks.

It is on the western side of the Spanish peninsula that we find the only other European region which for frequency of disastrous earthquakes is comparable to Southern Italy. The ill-fated city of Lisbon is the point where these shocks have always shown the greatest intensity. No large city in the civilized world has been to the same extent a sufferer by them. The chronicles mention an earthquake at Lisbon as early as 1009, but tell us nothing concerning the destruction which it produced. In 1531 there occurred a great shock, which threw down fifteen hundred houses, and destroyed all the churches in the city. In the succeeding year another violent shock visited the city, and again, in 1551, over two hundred houses were thrown down. It is, however, to the convulsion of 1755 that the city owes its melancholy celebrity. This earthquake was the most widespread in its effects of any known to us. From its focus beneath the Atlantic, near the shore of Portugal, the shock was propagated in every direction, reaching to Iceland on the north, to Toplitz in Bohemia on the east, and to the shores of America on the west. Not less than one fifteenth of the surface of the earth must have trembled at that shock. Situated so close to the centre of the impulse, Lisbon naturally suffered destructive effects which were not felt at points more remote. The destructive force of the shock was prodigious. The city was utterly ruined ; over twelve thousand houses were overthrown, over sixty thousand people killed. Immediately after the most severe shock, an enormous wave entered the Tagus, and overwhelmed thousands who had escaped from the falling buildings and sought safety in the open country along the shore. To complete the destruction which earth and hater had effected, flames burst forth at a hundred points, rendering it impossible to rescue those who were buried alive beneath the ruins, and consuming the wreck which the convulsion had accomplished. When the sad work was done, blackened ruins were all that was left of one of the finest cities of Southern Europe.

Numerous towns in the neighborhood of Lisbon were involved in the common havoc ; Faro, Setubal, and Cascaez were ruined, and throughout the kingdom nearly every town was more or less injured. It would require a volume to trace in detail the various phenomena which announced the passage of this shock through the area of land and sea which it traversed. A brief sketch may, however, serve to convey an idea of the way this great convulsion affected the regions through which it passed. The shock was felt throughout Spain, though with less intensity than might be supposed from its extreme violence at Lisbon. Seville, San Lucar, and Xeres were very much injured ; the town of Conil was quite ruined ; at Madrid the water rose suddenly in the wells immediately after the shock. On the African shore the results were more destructive. At Tangier a succession of sea waves of great size rolled upon the land ; some of these are said to have exceeded fifty feet in height. Near Morocco a mountain opened and a town with ten thousand people was engulfed. The peaks of a mountain near Ceuta were seen to rise and fall. Throughout Southern France there were distinct shocks felt ; the water at certain points changed color and appeared to boil, — a phenomenon due probably to the escape of gases through them. At Angoulême a cleft opened in the earth. In the famous subterranean mill at Le Locle, in the Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, at the depth of about three hundred feet terrific sounds were heard. All the lakes of Switzerland were more or less disturbed. The course of the Aar and of the Rhine seemed for a moment checked, and in many mills the water suddenly rose much above its usual level. Throughout Germany the passage of the shock was marked by various disturbances. Walls were shattered at Donauworth ; at Töplitz the hot springs ebbed and flowed in a very remarkable manner ; and at Hamburg the chandeliers in the churches swayed violently to and fro. In Sweden and Norway the shocks were more violent than in Germany ; in Gotha Ebene large trees were uprooted, and at some other points the land rose and sank. In Iceland also the shock was very violent, overthrowing many houses. It seems likely that the movements in Scandinavia and Iceland were affected by a local shock, induced by the impulse which came from the Lisbon shock. In no other way can we account for the greater severity of the disturbances in Scandinavia than in Germany. The great sea-wave which started from the point where the shock originated, near the Portuguese shore, was felt along the whole western coast of Great Britain. Throughout the island the water of canals and ponds surged to and fro violently, rising several feet on one side and then on the other, as the shock moved the ground to and fro. Holland also felt the shock over her whole area, exhibiting in her canals the same swaying to and fro of the water observed in England. This phenomenon was observed also at Milan, and at several other points in Northern Italy, although the sensible shock was not great and the damage to buildings slight. The general occurrence of this movement of the waters shows that the swaying to and fro of the earth must have been great, though the movement must have been slower than usual, as the damage to edifices was so small. The column of vapor from the crater of Vesuvius, which had been mounting into the air for many days, suddenly sank back into the mountain and disappeared at the moment of the shock.

Vessels on the Atlantic experienced the shock at various points ; many mariners thought their vessel had struck upon a hidden rock, so violent was the blow which the water transmitted. At Funchal the shock was severe, the whole island of Madeira being considerably shaken. About the same time that the first sea-wave entered the Tagus, a similar but less violent breaker rolled on the shores of this island, especially on the north and east coasts. Ten hours after the shock was felt in Lisbon, the sea-wave arrived in the West Indies. There is a strong probability that a slight land shock was felt at Martinique.

The history of the British Isles affords us numerous records of earthquake shocks, but none of sufficient force to produce very disastrous results. The first great shock mentioned occurred in 1089, when it is said that houses suddenly leaped upwards and afterwards returned to their position. In 1110 to the river Trent was stopped in its course by an earthquake, and ceased to flow for several hours. This peculiar interruption of the current of rivers has been more frequently noticed in connection with British earthquakes than those of any other country. Again, in 1158, the Thames dried up so that it could be passed dry-shod. We could better judge of the real importance of this event did we know at what point of its course the crossing was effected. The year 1186 brought an earthquake of sufficient violence to shake down many houses, but it is not stated that it caused any considerable loss of life. The earthquake of the year 1185 threw down the cathedral of Lincoln, and many other buildings in that part of the country. In 1258, the cathedral church of Wells was nearly ruined by a great shock : and that of 1274 brought, among other prodigies, a fiery dragon and a rain of blood. The shock of 1580 threw down many buildings in London, and produced a profound impression on the minds of the people, as is shown in the many chronicles of the event. The bells of Westminster were rung by the shock. A portion of the Temple Church was thrown down, and stones were shaken from St. Paul’s. Two persons were killed by the fall of fragments in Christ’s Church. The shock was felt in other sections, especially on the southern coast, where a part of the cliffs of Dover, crowned with fortifications, was shaken into the sea. Saltwood Castle was greatly injured, and the old church at Sutton much shaken. Scotland, especially the district around Perth, seems to have been peculiarly liable to earthquakes of a slight character ; in 1839 the whole region was violently shaken. Comrie, the centre of the shock, suffered very much. Many peculiar atmospheric and electric phenomena are said to have attended the shock ; but it is exceedingly difficult, in the excited state of the public mind which an earthquake shock produces, ever to get at the truth on these points.

Although the melancholy prominence given to Italy by the numerous devastating convulsions from which she has suffered has led some writers to suppose that no other portion of the globe has suffered more from earthquakes, it is likely that, if our records of the region between the Mediterranean and the Caspian Seas were as complete as those of Southern Italy, we should find that the western part of Asia has been the greatest sufferer. Since the beginning of the Christian era we have accounts of about thirty wide-spread and destructive shocks, and it seems likely that a large number of fatal earthquakes have left us no record. We can only mention the dates of a few of the most important of these convulsions. In 494 the cities of Laodicea, Hierapolis, Tripolis, and Agathecium were shaken down. The shock of the 20th of May, 526, is said to have destroyed two hundred and fifty thousand lives at Antioch. The number is rather questionable. Jerusalem was greatly damaged by the great shock of 746. The town of Deinar, in Irak, was ruined in 1007, with great loss of life. Damascus shared the same fate in 1029. Eleven years later fifty thousand men perished in the ruins of Tabriz, in Persia, which was overwhelmed by a great shock. In 1139 the city of Gansena was quite destroyed, with the loss of one hundred thousand lives. The shock of 1158 ruined Damascus, Aleppo, Antioch, and many other places, causing an immense loss of life. At Schamaki, in 1667, there occurred a series of convulsions, which lasted three months and killed over eighty thousand people. The roads were so much injured that the caravans had to adopt new routes. In 1727, Tabriz was again visited by a devastating earthquake, which laid the city in ruins and destroyed seventyseven thousand lives. Aleppo, Damascus, and the towns in that region, over a region of one hundred leagues square, were nearly ruined by the shock of 1739. In the valley of Balbec alone twenty thousand persons perished. In 1822 Aleppo lost twenty thousand of its people by an earthquake. In 1837 Syria was visited by a most disastrous shock ; over a district about five hundred miles in length by ninety miles in breadth the destruction was complete. In the town of Spahet, of four thousand inhabitants thirty-five hundred perished, many villages were swallowed up, and new hot springs appeared at several points.

From the far East we have many imperfect accounts of great earthquake shocks. The islands of Japan and the seaboard region of China seem to have been peculiarly subject to these disturbances. The dense population there has given these earthquakes an extremely destructive character. Long before the Christian era we have reports of great convulsions. During the earthquake of 285 B. C. a portion of the Japanese province of Oomi, having an area of about eight hundred square miles, sank beneath the sea. Another subsidence occurred in the province of Shan-si, in China, in 1556 ; a portion of the surface, sixty leagues in circumference, was converted into a lake. In 1703 the city of Jeddo was ruined, and two hundred thousand of its people killed, by an earthquake ; and in 1731 the Chinese capital, Pekin, was visited by a great shock, which destroyed one hundred thousand lives and the destruction extended far and wide throughout this portion of the empire. We have an account of an earthquake which occurred in Japan in 1793, the year of the great Italian earthquake, when the volcano of Illgigama poured forth a torrent of water which destroyed fifty-three thousand lives. In 1830 there was a wide-spread convulsion in the Chinese Empire, which was, according to all accounts, preceded by many portents, explosions in the air, storms of hail, etc. If we may measure the devastation by the terror it produced, it must have been very great.

Although the continental island of Australia is apparently one of the most fortunate regions of the earth in its exemption from volcanic and earthquake disturbances, the neighboring land on the east, the island of New Zealand, promises to prove one of the great seismic centres of the Pacific Ocean. Several severe earthquakes have been experienced there since its recent colonization, though, from the region most affected being still only thinly peopled, the destruction of life and property has been quite trifling. The shocks of 1826, 1841, and 1843 were very powerful, though local in their action. The greatest interest of the New Zealand earthquakes is due to the fact that the local geographical changes attendant on their action have been greater than at any other point where such effects have been observed. The earthquake of 1855 was probably the most powerful ever experienced there ; like the preceding, it brought considerable changes in the height of the land, a tract of over forty-six hundred square miles being permanently lifted from one to ten feet.

The great Eastern Archipelago, from New Guinea to Sumatra, has always been very subject to earthquake action. The greatest and most destructive of these shocks have, however, been connected with volcanic outbreaks, and their history could more properly be told in connection with these eruptions. It would, moreover, scarcely be profitable to swell our list with accounts of the many disastrous convulsions which have occurred in this archipelago or different regions of Asia. Enough has been told to indicate how much humanity has suffered from the convulsions of the most stable element, — to make it clear that, in judging the past or forecasting the future of a people, we must often consider the subterranean forces as having a value comparable to those agents of change which are generally included under the name of climate, — agents which are in the main the product of solar light and heat.