Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/235

174 The very best account that has been given of the Melfi earthquake of 1851 is in a small paper by Signor Arabia, a physician of that city. He says: "La state dell' anno 1851, fu in questi luogi ora descritti notavole per istraordinaria mancanza de aqua, sendo che dalla meta del Marzo piogge abbondanti non erano cadute." ('Relazione storica del Tremuota de Basilicata nell' anno 1851, letta nella tornata del 14 Dec. dell' Accademia Pontaniana dall Socio Residente Francesca, Sav. Arabia,' p. 9, 8vo., Napoli, 1852.)

In a small pamphlet narrative of the Calabrian earthquakes of 1835 and 1836, by Rossi, he says (p. 10): "Ivi ne' mesi de Juglio e de Agosto le piogge in tanta copia caddero che le ricolte de'campi furono tutte perdute." After this: " Seguito ne' primi giorni del vegnente Ottobre calore excessivo, tal che agli 8 di quel mese un' ora dopo il mezzodi il termometro de Reaumur segno il grado 27, &c." ("Storia dei Tremuoti di Calabria, negli anni 1835-1836,' di Achille Antonio Rossi, 8vo. Napoli, 1837.)

Rossi also communicated his account in the ^Annali Civile,' fascia xix and xxiii, Naples. The first shock was on the I2th October, 1835, and there was periodic commotion up to April, 1836. The winter between, it is right to add, was wet and unusually cold. Were I to digress into earthquake narratives in other countries, similar evidences might be greatly multiplied.

I HAVE only now to add, to the facts recorded in the second part of this Report, those embraced in the Appendix to it. Of these. No. 1 is a translation of a local account of the shock of December, 1857, by Signor Raflfaele Battista, a