Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/200

Rh second great shock), and that it was immediately followed by the oscillatory movement, which seemed nearly horizontal, and lasted some seconds, and died gradually away. It was the first movement that did the mischief, however. It made the beams of the floors, bend and creak, and displaced various articles of furniture, &c. They all heard the "rombo," which continued during the whole of the movement, or rather "seemed to lead it along," and most of them thought it lasted after the movement was no longer clearly sensible. It was a low, rolling rumble, like distant thunder. Several of the people here said, they felt giddy from the effect of the motion. They had heard of the unusual light on the night of the shock, and said the people of Calabrita and Caposele had seen it, at a great distance in the sky, to the south and S.E., but they had none of them seen it at Laviano. Had the shock been at all powerful here, Laviano must have been nearly destroyed, as secondary reflected waves of a formidable character must have reached it from the large mountain masses with which it is surrounded: Monte Marzano to the south, Spagarino to the N.W. and west, and the Serra Lunga, and Difesa di Castelnuovo to the north. The great valley depression, of the rivers Landro, Platano, and Bianco, and the upper stream of the Tanagro, lie between this whole valley, and the region within which the centre of effort, (or point vertically above it,) must be situated, and no doubt to a great extent cut off the progress of the wave, towards this place. The extreme chalky softness of the rock upon which it is built, and the junction