Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/252

202 them. After a state of quiescence—it might have been three minutes—the house began to reel confusedly, and then composed itself into another series of pendulum-like oscillations, in a direction from east to west, more prolonged than the former. I noticed that I could count, with moderate haste, three for the advance movement, and three for the return. These were repeated five times, and accompanied by a rushing noise, as of a brewing storm, and an underground rumbling like distant thunder. Indoors the sounds resembled the straining timbers of a ship in a gale. The moon was shining serenely, and the column of white vapour was issuing from the summit of Vesuvius calmly as usual, but the hurried prayers and sobbing ejaculations of the peasants in a neighbouring podere (farmstead), and the frightened baying of the watchdogs in the orange gardens, gave evidence of the terror which had just passed over the plain of Sorrento. By some the visitation had been expected. The weather had been very sultry for several days, and a peculiarly dense and ill-smelling fog had obscured the bay. The general alarm was very great, and most of the inhabitants of Sorrento rushed into the streets and open spaces. I have not heard that damage was done to any of the houses.

The very day preceding this, 15th Dec. 1857, a severe shock was felt at Rhodes, indicating that very distant points in the same seismic zone were then in agitation.

In recording from my note-books, &c., the facts ascertained, I shall now, for convenience, adopt the personal pronoun.

The preliminary inquiry of a day or two at Naples decided the general plan of investigation to be pursued. I