Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/282

232 fissures of considerable length, and open at widest 0.4 inch. They indicate a wave-path from the southward, and in direction 16° 15’ W. of N., and also one 105° 30’ W. of N. or orthogonal. They felt the two shocks of 16th December severely at the monastery. Padre Morcaldi, the Archivario, was not conscious of any noise attending either of the shocks, nor had any one else in the monastery remarked any.

The forms of the small mountain valleys in this thickly inhabited region, are singularly winding and capricious (Fig. 120). A shock in whatever general direction acting here upon the houses and towers, perched on declivities, now rocky, now diluvial, and scattered here and there and facing every point of the compass, must produce effects in the highest degree complicated, or even unaccountable. I therefore resolved, in the first instance at least, to waste no time by further observation within it.

Salerno, though an ancient city, is generally well built: it lies low, along the shore of a pebbly beach, and apparently on pretty deep beds of loose material, and the land behind it, rises gradually into mountain slopes, and recedes into sinuous transverse valleys on limestone.

It has not suffered much, but there are abundance of large measurable fissures. I had a lengthy conversation with the Intendente of the province, Signor Ajosso (who was confined to bed and unable to go round the city with me). He stated that the shock was not sufficient to throw down furniture, or observably displace it, but that he saw it jerk the water out of a large earthen jug, which he pointed out in his bedroom, about 5 inches diameter of mouth, and which had been full, within 2 inches.