Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/188

Rh cause, for the sudden changes often found, and frequently so apparently capricious and inexplicable, stood revealed, in two separate but adjacent instances, and upon a scale so vast as to compel conviction. From below Muro, nearly twenty miles in length of the general line of the valley, may be traced by the eye, and its whole direction down to the junction of the Giacojio or Fiumara de Muro, with the Platino, generally coincides with that of this great dislocation, namely, N.W. and S.E.; so that it may fairly be inferred that the vast fracture extends for miles beyond the portion visible, and is now covered to the southward by the loose deposits of the valley bottom. Its influence upon the shock would be, however, scarcely altered by such covering, and must be great in proportion to its length, depth, and width.

Examining Muro with the telescope, from the eastern steeps opposite, at only about three furlongs' distance, I can see that it has suffered scarcely any injury. A few fissures are visible, and I find from some of the buildings near the base, that the direction of wave-path is 16° 30' E. of north. These correspond narrowly with those at the Taberna and other buildings upon the slope below it, which give 16° E. of north. I find from the Padrone that Bella and Muro are not the only towns that have escaped so well; that, in fact, all the towns that lie to the N.W. of the valley of the Giacojo and within a short distance, have had the like immunity. Thus Pescopagano, St. Andrea, Castelgrandine, Rapone, Ravo, and St. Fele, have all come off with little more than fissures, while at an equal distance to the S.E. of the same line, the towns that I have already passed over and examined, are mostly in ruins.

VOL. II.K