Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/100

Rh The Gardien, Il Padre Salvatore Paligonice, told me, that he was in bed at the time of the shock; the lengthway of his bed was east and west, the head being to the east; and he distinctly felt the first shake, to be from the foot of his bed, towards the head of it, so that he felt a tendency, himself, to slip off from his pillow, in the direction towards his own feet. He was wide awake, with a light in the room, and cast his eyes on the instant, towards the foot of his bed, close against which a table stood with some things upon it, at about the same level as the coverlet. He felt the table push against the foot of the bed, and the moment after he saw some of the small things on the table, (books, crucifix, &c.) leap from it, on to the foot of his bed, and roll off to one side.

Within a second or two afterwards, he felt another shock, less violent, that shook him transversely, and tended to roll him out of bed, and, at the same moment, as nearly as he could say, he felt himself shaken in all directions "vorticoso."

He rose and dressed himself, hearing the noise and cries, and falling and splitting of walls, and was standing up, on one of the floors of the college, when he felt the second shock about an hour after the first, and this appeared to him to be very much, up and down: he added, however, that some students, who had hurt themselves by falling in the dark, at the first alarm, and were then lying down, thought this second shock, was about in the same direction, as he himself felt the first, and that they did not perceive the up-and-down movement, much, if at all. It appeared to me very probable, that those standing up, would feel the vertical movement most, and those lying down the horizontal one.