Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/305

Rh rear walls of the houses turned outwards, and built closely together, and upon the very edge of the steepest scapements of the rock. Such are the characteristics of many of these most interesting old towns. But I can see that the top of the cupola of the highest campanile or tower in the place, probably that of the church, has been broken off short and is gone, obviously by the direction of the fracture, by a force from the eastward and a little south, or about 70° W. of N. by estimation (c, Fig. 129), being, as figured, at the east end of the cupola, which was an hexagonal, Saracenic sort of small dome, of limestone, obviously modern.

As I move round the base of the rock, I can see thus much reason for its comparative security, that the mass of solid limestone upon which it rests, presents its long way to the length of the valley, and lies nearly E. and W., with its steep end towards the east, and buttressed away to the westward by a longer slope, as in the section E (Fig. 130) taken in a line with $$ab$$.