Page:Account of several remarkable earthquakes which have happened in various quarters of the world (1).pdf/20

 appearance, houses, churches, towns, cities, and villages were buried in one promiscuous ruin. Mountains were detached from their foundations, and carried to a considerable distance. Rivers disappeared from their beds, and again returned and overflowed the adjacent country. Streams of water suddenly gushed out of the ground, and sprang to a considerable height. Large pieces of the surface of the plain, several acres in extent, were carried five hundred feet from their former situation down into the bed of the river, and left standing at nearly the distance of a mile, surrounded by large plantations of olive and mulberry trees, and corn growing as well upon them as upon the ground from which they were separated. Amidst these scenes of devastation, the escapes of some of the unhappy sufferers is extremely wonderful. Some of the inhabitants of houses which were thrown to a considerable distance, were dug up from their ruins unhurt. But these instances were few, and those who were so fortunate as to preserve their lives in such situations, were content to purchase existence at the expence of broken limbs and the most dreadful contusions.

During this calamitous scene, it is impossible to conceive the horrors and wretchedness of the unhappy inhabitants. The jaws of death were opened to swallow them up, ruin had seized all their possessions, and those dear connections to which they might have looked for consolation in their sorrows, were for ever buried in the merciless abyss. All was ruin and desolation. Every countenance indicated the extremity of affliction and despair, and the whole country formed a wide scene of undescribable horror.

One of the most remarkable towns which was destroyed was Casal Nuova, where the Princess