generally most dangerous and destructive, of which the earthquakes at Quito, in 1797, and in Calabria, in 1783, afford convincing illustrations. In cases of this description it has happened that solid walls have changed their place, with the masonry perfectly undisturbed; rows of trees straight and parallel have been inflected; and, more remarkable still, entire fields, with different sorts of grain growing in them, have exchanged places and crops! Humboldt tells us that at Riobamba, South America, destroyed by the terrific convulsion of 1797, he was shown a place among the ruins where the whole furniture of one house had been carried bodily by the movement of the earthquake under the roof of another.
As an illustration of a circular movement upon an immense scale, may be instanced the famous earthquake which destroyed Lisbon in November, 1755, and afforded the great Pombal the opportunity of erecting those solid wooden-framed stone buildings that have so gloriously withstood later shocks, even up to periods so recent as November, 1855, and November, 1858. The shock in this instance was felt in many parts of Europe, and on the north coast of Africa, as well as in North America and the West Indies.
As has already been intimated, earthquakes are generally attended with more or less extensive elevation or subsidence of land. We will give here a few instances in illustration.
In the earthquake which visited Jamaica in 1692,
