Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/416

330 and La Sala on the cost, are vertical or nearly vertical (so far as bedding can be discerned at all), and the line of strike is nearly east and west.

The comparative immunity from destruction of Diano, is not difficult to explain. The direction of wave-path was here nearly due north to south. It therefore passed from the deep clays of the piano into the long spur or colline of the town, end on, (see Sketch Nos. 194, 195,) losing a large portion of



its vis vivâ at the junction, and a still larger portion, in passing through the great number of nearly vertical beds of limestone, about a mile in total thickness before reaching the town, in a direction perpendicular almost to their planes, like a bullet shot through the leaves of a thick book.

Again, the shock transmitted southwards through the lengthway of the great flanking chain to the westward, was almost completely cut of from reaching Diano at all, by the Vallone del Raccio to the north and N. W. of the town, upon