Treatise Serious Thoughts Earthquake At Lisbon
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | treatise |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-treatise-serious-thoughts-earthquake-at-lisbon-003 |
| Words | 367 |
I
walked, crept, and climbed round and over great part of the
ruins. I could not perceive by any sign, that there was ever
any cavity in the rock at all; but one part of the solid stone
is cleft from the rest, in a perpendicular line, and as smooth
as if cut with instruments. Nor is it barely thrown down,
but split into many hundred pieces, some of which lie four or
five hundred yards from the main rock. The ground nearest the cliff is not raised, but sunk con
siderably beneath the level. But, at some distance, it is
raised in a ridge of eight or ten yards high, twelve or fifteen
broad, and near a hundred long. Adjoining to this lies an
oval piece of ground, thirty or forty yards in diameter, which
has been removed, whole as it is, from beneath the cliff,
without the least fissure, with all its load of rocks, some of
which were as large as the hull of a small ship. At a little
distance is a second piece of ground, forty or fifty yards
across, which has also been transplanted entire, with rocks of
various sizes upon it, and a tree growing out of one of them. By the removal of one or both of these, I suppose the hollow
near the cliff was made. All round them lay stones and rocks, great and small, some
on the surface of the earth, some half sunk into it, some almost
covered, in variety of positions. Between these the ground
was cleft asunder in a thousand places. Some of the apertures
were nearly closed again, some gaping as at first. Between
thirty and forty acres of land, as is commonly supposed,
(though some reckon above sixty,) are in this condition. On the skirts of these, I observed, in abundance of places,
the green turf (for it was pasture-land) as it were pared off,
two or three inches thick, and wrapped round like sheets of
lead. A little farther it was not cleft or broken at all, but
raised in ridges, five or six foot long, exactly resembling the
graves in a churchyard. Of these there is a vast number.