How the Inhabitants of Ischia Were Warned.
An Italian writer on the dreadful catastrophe which occurred so recently on the island of Ischia, mentions those prognostications of an earthquake which are derived from animals. They were observed in every place where the shocks were such as to be generally perceptible. Some minutes before they were felt the oxen and cows began to bellow, the sheep and goats bleated, and rushing in confusion one on the other, tried to break the wicker-work of the folds. The dogs howled, the geese and fowls were alarmed and made much noise; the horses which were fastened in the stalls were greatly agitated, leaped up and down and tried to break the halters with which they were attached to the mangers; those on the road stopped suddenly and snorted in a very strange way. The cats were much frightened and tried to conceal themselves, or their hair bristled up wildly. Rabbits and moles were seen to leave their holes; birds rose as if scared from the places on which they had alighted; and fish left the bottom of the sea and approached the shores, where at some places great numbers of them were taken. Even ants and reptiles abandoned, in clear daylight, their subterranean holes in great disorder, many hours before the shocks were felt. The dogs, a few minutes before the first shock took place, awoke their sleeping masters by barking and pulling them, as if they wished to warn them of the impending danger, and many persons were thus enabled to save themselves.