Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/212

164 country south of the transverse axis, and down to the parallel of 40°, at Policastro, may be viewed largely, as a surface furrowed in parallel ridges, running north and south with a trend westward, but twisted, broken through by gaps, and irregular in a high degree.

South of parallel 40°, to the extremity of Calabria Ultra, the lateral chains, tend to place themselves at right angles to the axial chain, except about the boundary separating the two Calabrias, between Cape Suvero, on the west, and Capes Alice and Colonne on the east coasts, where a mountain knot is formed by the intersection of a short but well-defined transverse axis, running east and west, and nearly parallel with the great transverse axis to the northward; the road over which at Petrania, between Cosenza and Nicastro, reaches an elevation of nearly 3,400 feet.

This transverse chain is, in fact, the dam, that absorbs the earthquake movements of Calabria Ultra, and prevents their full spread northwards, and vice versâ, just as the great transverse chain of Monte Acuto, partially stops the propagation northward, of the shocks from the Principatas and Basilicata. At the intersection of the transverse axis of Monte Acuto, with the north and south one, there is a great mountain knot, comprised between Laviano and Oppido, east and west, and Venosa and Potenza, north and south. Within this space, which presents some of the grandest scenery of the Apennines, Muro and Bella occupy almost the central position. The mountainous country thus described, extends over about one half of the entire surface, of the kingdom of Naples. The remainder consists of vast plains, (relatively at least) of two distinct sorts—one, the