Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/71

Rh from that described is, that surface limestone—or that taken from the naturally exposed beds of rock—is commonly used to save labour in obtaining better, and hence the walls built almost invariably, of this coarse "nobbly" rubble, in half-rounded blocks, or rather lumps. of stone, of nearly equal length, breadth, and thickness, and resembling nothing in form more than irregular loaves of bread, are almost devoid of masonry bend, and are shaken down into a heap, by a shock that would only fissure a well-built and properly bonded structure.

It results, too, from the extreme steepness of the scarps and terraces upon which these poor edifices are placed, that when some are shaken down they fall against and upon those that are beneath them, and increase thus the common ruin. This took place with dreadful effect at Saponara and elsewhere in the shock of 16th December, 1857.

The hill sites of these provincial towns are found most commonly on the summits and flanks of the lower spurs of hills that skirt the great mountain ranges, and are on the confines of the "piani," or great valley plains or slopes, that separate the chains; but sometimes they are absolutely upon lofty mountain tops (Contarso, Montesano), or at the edges of steep ravines (Bella); or on spurs high up on mountain flanks, as Petina, on the flank of La Scorza. Occasionally they stand (or stood) upon the fiat tops, of insulated and enormously deep masses, of loose alluvium and clay, like Montemurro and Sarconi, with large rivers or torrents running at the bases of the clay cliffs, and eating them away.

This is almost universally the case in the great piano of Calabria Ulteriore Primo, and hence the expression of