Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/422

336 east of the town, between it and the ridge of the Costa della Madonna, of arid limestone, and slender covering of soil at various points, but no fissures or falls of rock were visible.

I found the Sotto Intendente, Il. Cavalieri Gul°. Calvoso, living with the Signora in a comfortable wooden "barrac" or hut beneath the town; for although the great shock threw down so few buildings here, the alarm of subsequent minor ones, has caused those who could, for the present to desert their permanent stone houses. He accompanied me with his secretary, Il. Caval. Ferdinando Lansalone, through the town, and through his own palazzo (the Casa Officiale), which, though shaken and fissured, was still standing, just as it had been fled from by every living being, on the night of the 16th December; and as it had been locked up ever since, the pictures and many other objects within the house, were lying strewed or thrown about, exactly in the positions in which the shock had left them. The Sotto Intendente gave me on the spot, and in the rooms, a very graphic and intelligent account of his observations as to what had occurred.

There is no record as to the precise time of the shock. The clock at the Casa Communale was thrown down and stopped, but the hour could not be got from it, and its inaccuracy was admitted to be as great as usual.

The house of the Sotto Intendente is founded on the solid limestone rock: it is a long and rather narrow two-story building of large size, stone built, with timber and filed floors and roof, and well constructed. There are a few small fissures in the walls, indicating a north to south wave-path, emergent 20° to 30°, but the latter evidence is uncertain.