Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/113

72 quiet,) by another minor shock, differing in direction from the first, and more undulatory as they thought, and lasting nearly the same time. There was then the shock, of about an hour after, but that they felt with much less violence than the two preceding, and it did but little damage, except to what was ruinous, from those that went before.

The noise, was described by the Intendente, and by several others, as a rolling, deep-toned, rombo, like the sustained but irregular fire of artillery, at a distance; and it appeared to them, to be heard at the same instant, with the arrival of the shock, and to continue as long, if not longer, than the vibratory movements which were felt after the great pulse.

They had seen no strange lights, but had heard that others had, back to the westward. All sorts of exaggerated stories were current, however, as to some extremely oppressive state of the atmosphere, during the shock and after it, for which there seemed upon examination to be no good foundation.

There were several heavy landslips, in the upper part of the valley of Vignola, and fissures, open only a few inches, but some hundreds of feet in length, at the east side or slope of the valley, in the diluvial covering.