Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/215

Rh rolling, rounded, hilly country, constituting the vast grazing downs, of Capitansta and Basilicata, on which countless sheep and goats are pastured in winter and spring; the other the rich corn plains, level as the sea almost, of which the largest are in Otranto and Bari; next to which come those of the Terra di Lavoro, the plain of Pæstum, and of Calabria Ultra, from Rosarno to St. Euphemia (the scene of the great earthquake of 1784). All these great plains (piani) are on the seaboard, but almost every mountain valley of any magnitude, consists of a piano, almost perfectly level, from the sides of which, the mountains spring abruptly, as from a sea shore. The largest of these, is the Piano di Diano, in Principato Citeriore, the scene of some of the worst disasters of the earthquake of December, 1857, in early spring presenting, as do all these valley plains, characters of the richest and most enchanting country. The general aspect of the Val di Diano may be gathered from the Photogs. Nos. 108 (and 109 Coll. Roy. Soc.), being views of the town of Diano, from which the Vailone and Piano take their name; the other of St. Arsenio, on the west side of 'the same plain. The smaller valley bottoms, present the same characters upon a less scale—many are partially in forest. The mountain cincture of the piani, usually consists, of one or several sloping terraces of small elevation, having frequently the character, more or less perfect, of "parallel roads," tracing round the margins. Those in the piano of the Bay of St. Euphemia, have been described by Meissonier, 'Comptes Rendus for 1858,' and such terraces are observable around a large portion of the Val di Diano.

The piani are not always, or necessarily, strictly level