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Show 444 EARTHQUAKE JN JAVA, A.D. 1699. there were such changes of level as to alter the whole face of the country, hills having risen up where there were plains before*. Java, 1699.-0n the 5th of J anum·y, 1699, a terrible earthquake visited Java, and no less than two hundred and eight considerable shocks were reckoned. Many houses in Batavia were overturned, and the flame and noise of a volcanic eruption were seen and heard at that city, which were afterwards found to proceed from Mount Salak-;-, a volcano six days' journey distant. Next morning the Batavian river, which has its rise from that mountain, became very high and muddy, and brouO"ht down abundance of bushes and trees, half burnt. The b channel of the river being stopped up, the water overflowed the country round, the gardens about the town, and some of the streets·, so that fishes lay dead in them. All the fish in the river, except the carps, were killed by the mud and turbid water. A great number of drowned buffaloes, tigers, rhinoceroses, deer, apes, and other wild beasts were brought down by the current, and "notwithstanding," observes one of the writers, "that a crocodile is amphibious, several of them were found dead among the resq." It is stated, that seven hills boundin()' the river sank down, by which is merely meant, as by similar e~pressions in the description of the Calabrian earthquakes, seven great landslips. 'I'hese hills, descending some from one side of the valley and some from the other, filled the channel, and the waters then finding their way under the mass, flowed out thick and muddy. The Tangaran river was also dammed up by nine hills, and in its channel were large quantities of drift trees. Sev~n of its,tributa~ics also are said to have been "covered up With earth. A hJgh tract of forest land, between the two great rivers before mentioned, is described as having been changed into an open country, destitute of trees, the surface being spread over with a fine red clay. This part of the account ~ay, perhaps, merely refer to the sliding down of woody tracts mto ~he valleys, ~s happen.ed to so many extensive vineyards and olive-grounds m Calabna, • Humboldt and Bonpland, Voy. Relat. Hist., Part I., p. 177. t Misspelt Sales in Hooke's account. l Hooke's Posthumous Works, p. 4371 1705. EARTHQUAKES IN QUITO, SICILY, MOLUCCAS, ETC. 445 in 1783. 'rhe close packing of large trees in the Batavian river is represented as ve~y remar~\able, and it attests in a striking manner the destructiOn of sml bordering the valleys which had been caused by floods and land slips*. Quito, 1698.-In Quito, on the 19th of July, 1698, during an earthquake, a great part of the crater and summit of the volcano Carguairazo fell in, and a stream of water and mud issued from the broken sides of the hill t. Sicily, 1693.-Shocks of earthquakes spread over all Sicily in 1693, and on the 11th of January the city of Catania and forty nine other places were levelled to the ground, and about one hundred thousand people killed. The bottom of the sea, says Vicentino Bonajutus, sank down considerably both in ports, inclosed bays, and open parts of the coast, and water bubbled up along the shores. Numerous long fissures of various breadths were caused, which threw out sulphureons water, and one of them, in the plain of Catania (the delta of the Simeto), at the distance of four miles from the sea, sent forth water as salt as the sea. The stone buildings of a street in the city of Noto, for the length of half a mile, sank into the ground, and remained hanging on one side. In another street, an opening large enough to swallow a man and horse appeared:j:. Moluccas, 1693. -The small isle of Sorea, which consists of one great volcano, was in eruption in the year 1693. Different parts of the cone fell one after the other into a deep crater, until almost half the space of the island was converted into a fiery Jake. Most of the inhabitants fled to Banda, but great pieces of the mountain continued to fall down, so that the Jake became wider, and finally the whole population was compelled to emigrate. It is stated, that in proportion as the lake of lava increased in size, the earthquakes were less vehement§. Jamaica, 169~.-In the year 169~ the island of Jamaica was visited by a violent earthquake, the ground swelled and • Phil. Trans., 1700. t Phil. Trans., 1693-4. t HumbolUt, Atl. Pit., p. 106. § Ibid. 1693. |