vial and these facts is remarkable. The chronology of the prediction, and the pestilences referred to, appear not merely coincidence, but cause and effect.

The Mauritius has been recently swept by a terrible epidemic. The cruel sufferings of the Mauritians may well move the pity of all Europe. Accounts say, "everybody was taken at once, and there is not one per cent. now who have not had it; in some cases 10 or 12 persons were all down in the same house, not one able to give the other even a drink. Very many died and putrefied, poisoning the atmosphere, before they were found out; in other cases people crawled as best they could to their gardens, scratched holes and put their defunct friends into them, not a person being able to go to make a de-. claration of the death; carts going about day and night to take up the sick in the streets and the dead out of the houses. Many families are cleared out entirely; it would appear that the curse of God was on the place."

"Pestilences" in divers places at the date of the pouring out of the seventh vial are to be accompanied with earthquakes. Have these occurred with greater frequency since 1848?

The Times of March, 1855, states:-"The accounts from Broussa are terrible. Such a longcontinued convulsion of nature has hardly been heard of in the history of the world. The earthquake had lasted five days, and shocks were of constant occurrence when the last news left. By my last letter

you learned that the great shock of the 28th of February had destroyed a part of the town, and killed or maimed nearly 300 of the inhabitants. Although the shocks were only felt at Constantinople during two days, they lasted at Broussa for four succeeding days, not without causing serious damage to the already shaken houses. The commencement of the convulsion was preceded by torrents of rain, which lasted more than 24 hours, accompanied by a high wind and occasional thunder. At three o'clock the sky became suddenly overcast ; a strong smell of sulphur was perceived, and the first shock took place, which, in less than a minute, overthrew mosques, houses, and bazaars, in one vast ruin. Nearly 80 mosques have been so much injured that their speedy fall is expected, while not one in the whole city has escaped some damage. The khans, or large buildings which served either as inns or places for transacting business, are mostly injured, and five of them were completely destroyed, crushing scores of their unfortunate inmates. The bazaars, with their heavy arches, are flat on the ground. The ancient mosque of Davoullon-Monastir, a Greek ecclesiastical edifice, said to be 1200 years old, is unhappily destroyed. Another mosque, the OulonDjami, a fine building 600 years old, is also a mass of ruins.

"As if nature herself were influenced by the causes which now disturb mankind, this capital has been visited within a short time by two of the most violent

commotions that have been known for many years. Three months since the hurricane which destroyed the British transports burst over the Black Sea with a fury not to be surpassed by the tornadoes of the Mexican Gulf; and yesterday Constantinople was shaken by an earthquake, which, had it lasted long, might have been reckoned among the calamities of the human race."

In a letter dated Sion Valais, July, 1853, we read : -" I send you some fresh details which I have just collected with respect to the catastrophe of St Nicolas and Viège.

"The 26th has been a yet more terrible day than the 25th,—not that the shocks of earthquake have been stronger, but that all the houses, being cracked and ready to fall, were unable to resist any new shocks. At 10 o'clock I was at Grachen, sitting on a rock, and talking with two peasants, when, all at once, our seat was violently agitated; we were thrown to the earth, and at the same moment 13 barns fell in, the spire of the church was completely demolished, and an enormous rock,-known in the district by the name of 'Kalchenzug'-bounding from the top of the mountain, precipitated itself with a horrible crash into Viège, surrounded by a cloud of pebbly dust which rolled onwards with the impetuosity of an avalanche.

"From Grachen I went to St Nicolas by the wooden bridge. Notwithstanding the reiterated warnings of the inhabitants, I determined to pene

trate into the village, in order that I might be able myself to judge of the extent of the disaster.

"All the houses had fallen one upon the other, and at the very moment that I quitted the village (a quarter past one, P.M.) a fresh shock occurred, which completely levelled the little inn called 'La Croix Fédérale.' The only houses which now stand at St Nicolas are the priest's house and the house of the notary, M. Binner. All the rest is one heap of ruins, and the wretched inhabitants of this village, collected together in a large field near the river, are encamped in the open air. It is heart-breaking to witness the despairing sadness of the men, who have just seen the destruction of the houses which sheltered them yesterday, and of the women, surrounded by their children, who can do nothing but weep over this overwhelming calamity.

to

"The whole east of France from Valence up Metz felt very perceptibly the shock of earthquake which, as has been already mentioned, did some slight damage at Lyons on the 25th at noon.'

On June 14, 1867, a fearful earthquake shook Java. In the newspapers of July it was stated :"We have just received the Java papers of the 14th June, giving full particulars of the dreadful earthquake which occurred in the island on the morning of the 10th of June. It was very destructive in the districts of Cheribon, Pekalongan, Banjoemas, Bagelen, Samarang, Djokjdokarta, and Sourakarta. The greater part of the indigo and sugar manufactories,

private houses, and military establishments are destroyed at Djokjdo, but in the other districts the damage was not so extensive. The losses, however, are incalculable. The sugar crop, which had just been brought into the barns, is totally lost. A large number of Europeans and natives perished-the report says as many as 300. It was feared also that other parts of Java might be visited by earthquakes; even at Batavia shocks were felt on the day the mail started. The accounts of the rinderpest in Java are most distressing. In some districts the whole stock of buffaloes has died out, and great destitution and misery prevail; indeed, the general effect of the news brought by this mail is very painful."

Two or three years ago an earthquake shook London.

In 1867 occurred a very disastrous earthquake in Cephalonia, followed by wide-spread famine and destitution.

A correspondent of the Levant Herald, writing from Mitylene, on the 20th of March, says :-" I cannot yet give you the final details of the havoc caused by the calamity which has befallen us, as shocks still continue, and it has been impossible to prepare up to the present moment any reliable official return; even the ruins have not yet been completely explored. So far in the town of Mitylene itself 150 bodies have been dug out and interred, and to judge from the fetid smell which prevails, especially near the bazaar, there are, perhaps, still many victims lying under