And here we may take occasion to state The course of rivers was arrested for a moment, and then renewed with such that the Catalogue contains many records violence as to tear away every obstruction. | of earthquakes in Scotland, not indeed in In Calabria the darkness was so great that recent years accompanied by fatal results, lights were obliged to be used. A disa- but still testifying that that region has greeable odor was very perceptible. Many been frequently visited by shocks. persons were afflicted by nausea. During if we examine a geological map of Scotthe violent period of the earthquake the land we find, from the two great bands weather was still and gloomy, and Vesu- of trappean eruption, that the northern vius, Stromboli, and Etna were perfectly part of our island was once a veritable quiet. Terra del Fuego convulsed by fiery depths. Worthy of remark, too, is the fact, that we are indebted to Plutonic agencies for those picturesque forms that charm the tourist's eye in Caledonia. The marvelous peaks of Skye, and In the winter of 1797, the territory of Quito was desolated by a terrific earthquake. No less than forty thousand persons are said to have been destroyed on this occasion. The earthquake was preceded by loud subterranean noises. The "Arthur's craggy bulk, great volcano of Tunguragua, which usuThat dweller of the air, abrupt and lone," ally acts as a safety-valve to this highly Plutonic region, became still, and the overhanging Edinburgh, were brought smoke of Pacto, another volcano seventy- forth amidst convulsive earthquake throes. five leagues distant, disappeared suddenly Originally a molten mass that came hissinto the crater. The movements of trans- ing from the deep, amidst the rending of lation accompanying this and other earth- rocks, and the roaring of flames, Arthur's quakes in South-America, presented strik- Seat cooled down into that picturesque ing and most complicated phenomena. form from the tranquil summit of which "Avenues of trees," says Humboldt, we now gaze with delight on the broad were moved without being uprooted, fields bearing different kinds of cultivation became intermixed; and articles belonging to one house were found among the ruins of others at a considerable distance, a discovery which gave rise to some perplexing law-suits." The winter of 1803 was attended by numerous violent earthquakes in Europe. On the thirteenth December, Mont Blanc was violently shaken, and a mass of ice one hundred feet in hight was precipitated from its sides. Shortly after this occurrence, the Breven mountains, rising from the Valley of Chamouni, suffered the same concussions, and great masses of rock were detached and rolled into the vale below. The force on this occasion must have been enormous to have produced such effects. In 1816, we find that Inverness and the country round for one hundred miles suffered considerably from an earthquake. The spire of the church was greatly shaken, and six feet at the top twisted round, so that the angles of the octagon coïncided with the middle of the faces of the part below. Doors swung to and fro. Bells rang. The water of Loch Levin was rendered muddy. Many persons experienced sickness. Dogs howled, and birds were scared from their roosting-places. landscape. The castle of Edinburgh is built on another elevation born amidst earthquake paroxysms, and curiously enough, precisely where the Plutonic forces raged most, upheaving crests and pinnacles of trap rock, there history informs us human warfare has been most violent. For, on their commanding eminences warriors built their strongholds. The castles of Stirling, Dumbarton, and Dirleton, stand on trap rocks, and the thunder of battle was heard in those localities which in distant ages rocked under the influence of earthquakes. Reverting to the Catalogue, we find that in 1808 a terrible earthquake in Catania was accompanied by the unusual phenomenon of walls opening horizontally, so that the light of the moon penetrated for an instant before the fissures closed. In 1811, Carolina, and the valleys of the Mississippi, Ohio, and the Arkansas, were visited by a tremendous earthquake, remarkable from the absence of volcanoes in those regions. A vast area was affected, many persons were killed, and the effect produced on the trees, as the earthwave passed through the forests, is represented as very extraordinary. Although the air was perfectly still, trees were twisted and their boughs wrenched off by the transit of the earth-wave; others, though undisturbed, were killed; and when Sir C. Lyell visited the locality in 1846, he observed that zones of trees af fected by the earthquake of 1811 were dead and leafless, though standing erect and entire. But probably no earthquake of which we have any record, exhibits the tremendous volcanic force so forcibly as that which occurred in 1822, in Chili. The center of disturbance was near Valparaiso; that city was greatly injured, and the coast along a line of twelve hundred miles was shaken. But a more wonderful phenomenon was the permanent elevation of the land to a hight of between two and seven feet over an area of one hundred thousand square miles, or within one sixth of that of Great Britain and Ireland. Some idea of the force exercised to accomplish this, may be formed from a calculation made by Sir C. Lyell, that the mass uplifted contained fifty-seven cubic miles in bulk, equal to a conical mountain two miles high, with a circumference at the base of nearly thirty-three miles-or, assuming the great pyramid of Egypt to weigh six million tons, the mass upheaved by this earthquake, exceeded the weight of one hundred thousand pyramids.* Records like these and now it must be borne in mind we are no longer dealing with doubtful authorities testify, that however much other physical causes which have affected our globe may be modified, earthquakes still are mighty agents in changing the earth's crust, and the terrible earthquake in the Neapolitan territory in the winter of 1857-8, attests that the subterranean force is far from being exhausted. This earthquake occurred too recently to be included in the British Association Earthquake Catalogue, but our article would be incomplete were it to be omitted from the list of remarkable earthquake phenomena. The tremendous visitation was preceded by subterranean agitation. Vesuvius *See Lyell's Principles of Geology for further interesting speculations respecting this earthquake. We spent the night of August 2, 1849, on the dering with seeming agony. We leaned our breast on the high rim of the inner cone of the crater when it was belching up melted lava many feet above our heads. A river of lava was poured out on the eastern side, forming a lake of fire summit of Vesuvius. It was trembling and shud a mile and a half long and a mile wide, glowing in the moon-beams.-ED ECLECTIC. was in a state of chronic eruption for two years. The wells of Resina were dried up in the autumn of 1857. Fetid gaseous exhalations burst from the streams near Salandro, the waters of which attained a boiling temperature. The atmosphere for several weeks before the earthquake was unusually calm, and a light, like that proceeding from a misty moon, was seen in places where the earthquake was subsequently extremely violent. Dogs howled, and strange hissing sounds were heard. The first decided intimation of the impending catastrophe occurred on the sev enth December, when a slight shock threw down the cone of Vesuvius. It was hoped, and indeed expected, that this volcano would, as of old, prove a safety-valve. But in place of the gorgeous pillar of fire that dominated the cone during the autumn, nothing now appeared but a wreath of smoke, and a lambent flame which lighted Naples with a supernatural glare, a convincing proof that the volcanic energies were about to expend their forces in another manner and direction. On the sixteenth December, at ten P.M., the inhabitants of the Neapolitan States were made aware that the terrible enemy was at their doors. Soon, too soon, the ruin came. At Naples, the furniture first, then the walls, and next whole houses rocked, while bells rang: "Terremuoto terremuoto," shrieked the population, as they rushed wildly reeling into the streets, invoking the aid of their favorite saints. Then came the replica or return earth-wave which hurled them with irresistible force against the tottering walls, occasioning in many cases intense sickness. After midnight several other shocks were felt in the city, but although the wildest panic reigned, during which ruffians profited by the occasion to plunder the deserted houses and commit outrages, it was found when daylight returned that no life had been lost, and that the damage to buildings was confined to staircases having fallen, and walls having been fissured. ascribed by the superstitious to the belief But although Naples thus escaped that the blood of St. Januarius had liquified of its own accord-ruin, wide-spreading, terrible, and awful as that foreshadowed in the Apocalypse, fell upon the land. Throughout the provinces, and nearly in every commune, buildings of all descriptions were whelmed in common carries upon its back, as it were-a cor responding aqueous undulation, slight, long, and flat, upon the surface of the water. This, which may be called the forced sea-wave of earthquakes, and which has no proper motion of its own, communicates the earthquake shocks to ships at sea, as if they had struck upon a rock." The general direction of the earth-waves south-east of Naples seems to have been from north to south, crossed, however, not unfrequently, by other waves from east to west. In both cases the waves recoiled, producing the replica or returnshock, involving certain destruction to every object within its influence. At Potenzo the motion was violently undulatory, accompanied by vertical and leaping movements, causing furniture to bound upwards. Mr. Mallet, who was commissioned by the Royal Society to examine the earth-shaken provinces, informs us that Saponara, a town of eight thousand inhabitants which experienced return-shocks, was absolutely reduced to powder; and photographs executed under his directions show in many instances the extraordinary apparent vorticose effect of the motion. At Padula a photograph now before us represents a large stone statue of the Virgin turned on its pedestal; and lamps and chandeliers suspended from the ceiling were in many instances observed suddenly to swing at right angles to their first direction of motion. Throughout extensive areas the land was seamed with deep fissures arising from land slips or other secondary causes, and roads were moved two hundred feet from their original positions. The phenomena attending this tremendous visitation were most remarkable. The ground in many districts is stated to have rolled like waves. At Resina the entire town and neighborhood were in a state of vibration from ten A.M. to 5 P.M. on the thirtieth December. At Naples, from the sixteenth to the thirtieth of that month, eighty-four shocks were felt, and these would in all probability have been attended with great destruction and loss of life had not Vesuvius opened after the sixteenth December. "For a day or two," says a spectator, writing from Naples, "the mountain had been singularly undemonstrative, but on the very night of the earthquake, subsequent to the shocks, a new vent was opened, and a great quantity of smoke and stones was thrown out. A few days after, a sound, as of a violent discharge of artillery, was heard, and a huge column of stones was shot up. It would be useless to speculate on what might have been the consequences had this valve not been opened; but one fact is undeniable, that Naples has escaped with shakings of the houses." Mariners at sea state that they felt the shocks as if their barks had struck upon the rocks; others as if they had been twirled suddenly round in the vortex of a whirlpool. The effect of earthquakes upon the sea has been much studied by Mr. Mallet. He states that when the It would be easy to cite additional facts earth-wave passes under the deep water illustrating the damage caused by this of the ocean, it probably shows no trace earthquake. Enough, however, has been of its progress at the surface, "but as it said to show that the phenomena attendarrives in soundings, and gets into water ing it were of the most awful and ruinous more and more shallow, the undulation of nature; for besides the destruction to the bottom the crest of the long, flat-property and life, the catastrophe, occurshaped earth-wave brings along with it-ring as it did in mid-winter, caused the Although the earthquake was not felt sensibly at Rome, the stoppage of several delicate instruments in the Observatory of that city, leads the Rev. Director, Padre Secchi, to the conclusion that the earthquake wave passed under that city. Mr. Mallet traced it north of Naples, until the effects from it became lost in the alluvium near Terracina; but in the parallel limestone hills the results were observable as far as Sevmonta. poor houseless inhabitants, who were obliged to encamp in the open ground, great additional suffering, further aggra vated by their indolent and superstitious habits. No wonder that the Neapolitan dreads the winter earthquake. We have now given the salient phenomena observed in connection with earthquakes. All are wonderful, many most perplexing. Let us now see what results Mr. Mallet draws from the records. every age and sort, and are direct agents of elevation. Viewing as a whole, and at a single glance, the distribution of earthquake energy over the entire globe, it presents, according to Mr. Mallet, a vast loop, or band, round the Pacific, a more broken and irregular one around the Atlantic, with subdividing bands, and a broad band stretching across Europe and Asia, and uniting them. Thus, an apparent preponderance of seismic surface seems to lie about the temperate and torrid zones, both northern and southern; but, as the Report observes, extended observation is yet required in high latitudes, and particularly in the Antarctic regions, where we know violent volcanic force exists, before it can be affirmed that there is a real preponderance extending over any one or more great climatic bands or zones of the earth's surface. It may, however, be confidently assumed that there are few parts of the earth's crust that are not convulsed by earthquakes. The study of seismic force may indeed be said to concern us intimately; for though we do not suffer from earthquakes to a fatal extent, yet their occurrence in a slight degree in Scotland 'and the north of England shows that volcanic action exists beneath Great Britain. The remarkable fact has been observed, that earthquakes are more prevalent and violent in winter than during summer. Divided by chronological periods, it appears that the end of the third century first gives evidence of numerical increase; and earthquakes seem to steadily progress in numbers up to 1850. But the rapid and vast extension, particularly in the first half of the nineteenth century, affords no proof that there has been a corresponding, or even any, increase in the frequency of earthquake phenomena. For, as the Report truly observes, the Catalogue of Earthquakes is not only a record of these phenomena, but also of the advance of human enterprise, travel, and observation. Indeed, to assume that earthquake disturbance has been continually on the increase, would be to contradict all the ana. logies of the physics of our globe. These analogies might lead us to suppose that, like other violent presumed periodical actions, that producing earthquakes was becoming feeble, and the series of earthquakes would consequently be found a converging one. Were this so, however, to any considerable extent, we should not find the vast expansions of results which Taking the whole of Europe, the prethe last three hundred years present. ponderance of earthquakes during winter This expansion, it is believed, just keeps is very marked, the Catalogue showing pace with that of contemporaneous hu- that during fifteen centuries and a half, man progress; for the increase in the 857 earthquakes occurred during spring number of recorded earthquakes always and summer, and 1165 during autumn coïncides with the epochs of increased and winter. Of 255 earthquakes in Engimpulse and energy in human enterprise. land and Scotland, 44 occurred during the It is therefore pretty certain that earth- spring months, 58 during the summer quake action has remained nearly uniform months, 79 during the autumn months, throughout historic time; thus showing and 74 during the winter months. And that if the interior of our globe is in a with respect to earthquakes in the Italian liquid or melting state, the cooling pro- peninsula, it is recorded that in several incess is extremely slow. Earthquakes do stances no alarm was felt when they broke not seem in any part of the world, as far out during summer, while those in winter as originating impulse is concerned, to be inspired the greatest terror. The Cata connected with the superficial character logue further shows that earthquakes are to the greatest known depth of geological more numerous and violent in those localformations. While earthquake waves di-ities where volcanoes are most active. verge from axial lines that are generally The connection between volcanic and of the older rock formations, and often of crystalline igneous rocks, or actively volcanic, they penetrate thence formations of seismic effort is so obvious, although the nature of the connection is but little understood, that we are quite prepared to find that the most violent earthquakes | velocity to be from five to seven geogra have occurred precisely where volcanic phical (German) miles per minute-equi centres stand close in rank. An earth- valent to between twenty and twentyquake in a non-volcanic region may, in eight statute miles. In great earthquakes, fact, be viewed as an uncompleted effort the wave traveling at the rate of probably to establish a volcano. The forces of ex- about thirty miles per minute, takes freplosion and impulse are the same in both; quently ten to twenty seconds to pass a they differ only in degree of energy, or in given point. the varying sorts and degrees of resistance opposed to them. Grants of money made by the Royal Society and the British Association, have enabled Mr. Mallet to make a great number of experiments on the velocity of the earth-wave through various strata. Can Stretching in a vast horse-shoe convex to the south, from Burmah and Pegu, and surrounding the great island of Borneo, with an intervening belt of sea, and reach-isters and casks containing powder were ing round to Formosa on the north-west, sunk in the earth at distances varying we have an almost continuous girdle of from half a mile to a mile from each other, volcanoes and lofty mountains. Every and it was found that the seismocope wave island of the group, including Java and passed through sand at the rate of nine Sumatra, is shaken by formidable and fre- hundred and sixty-five feet per second, and quent earthquakes. Nothing even in through solid granite at the rate of sixteen South-America or Mexico appears to rival hundred and sixty-one feet per second. the grandeur of volcanic energy and sympathetic earthquake action of that region. In 1815 the thundering of Tomboro, in Sumbava, was heard nearly one thousand miles away, (through the earth no doubt,) and the ashes or tufa-dust floating through the air converted the ordinary light of noon into darkness three hundred miles distant in Java, and were precipitated at sea a thousand miles from the point of ejection, while vast tracts of country, with inhabited towns, suddenly became engulfed and disappeared during periods of eruption which may be said to have been almost continuous. The great shock, or earth- wave, observes Mr. Mallet, is a true undulation of the solid crust of the earth, traveling with immense velocity outwards in every direction from the point vertically above the center of impulse. If this be at small depth below the surface, the shock will be felt principally horizontally; but if the origin be profound, the shock will be felt more or less vertically, and in this case two distinct waves may be felt, the first due to the originating normal wave, the second to the transversal waves vibrating at right angles to it. Want of observation renders it of course difficult to arrive at any just conclusion respecting the annual number of earthquakes beneath the ocean, but making every allowance for imperfect information, the disparity of relative numbers is such as to warrant our estimating, with some confidence, that the seismical energy is manifested with much greater power, for equal areas, upon the dry land than upon the ocean bed. Contemporary with Mr. Mallet's valuable and interesting researches are those of M. Perrey, who was the first to notice a singular connection between the phases of the moon and earthquakes. By the analysis of various catalogues of earthquakes, he deduces 1. That earthquakes occur more frequently at the periods of new and full moon. 2. That their frequency increases at the perigee and diminishes at the apogee of the moon. 3. That shocks of earthquake are more frequent when the moon is near the meridian than when she is ninety degrees away from it. These conclusions point to the existence The earth-wave, as observed in Europe, of a terrestrial as well as an oceanic tide. is supposed to travel from W. 2° 39' N. The theory was so novel as to lead the to E. 2° 39' S. The velocity or transit of French Academy to appoint a commission the earth-wave or shock has never been to report upon it. Among the members precisely ascertained, but it is computed was the late M. Arago, and here is their with great probability to average seven-explanation of M. Perrey's views: teen hundred and sixty feet per second. Humboldt, a high authority on all matters "If, as is generally believed in the present relating to telluric phenomena, states the day, the interior of the earth is, owing to its |