Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/287

Rh co-existence here of an orthogonal shook, or one from W. to E., but of very minor intensity, as was already noticed at Amalfi, Atrani, and La Cava.

Several other churches that I entered showed no sign of injury. I was informed that the church of Saldina with its Campanile, not far from Salerno to the northward, had been seriously dislocated, more than any at Salerno. Time would not admit my diverging to it.

Throughout the whole vast plain, from Salerno to Pæstum, no visible sign of the earthquake can be found. It was felt however, sharply and with alarm, all over it, and the people very generally say it came from the eastward, in so far as their very loose expression "levante ver, ponente," may mean so.

The outstretched plain between the mountains and the sea, is not perfectly level; it slopes very gently seaward, and consists of a great depth of diluvial and transported material, all small where visible. At Pæstum, and for a considerable distance round it, the fawn-coloured aqueous tufa, of calcareous matter filled with the impressions of recent plants of a paludal character—great arundos, alder leaves and twigs, &c.—is found horizontally, everywhere at from 6 to 12 feet beneath the surface, and no doubt overlies the limestone that supports the whole plain.

Of this tufa, the majestic, solitary, and awe-inspiring Doric temples were built, with the town walls of huge ashlar all laid dry, that alone remain of what was once a populous city. Upon the dreary winter afternoon, on which I examined its ruins, no sign of life enlivened the desolate plain, but a flock of screaming green plover; no sound was heard but the wind that sighed through the