Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/202



By miserably bad roads, and constantly descending, I approach Valva, the same cretaceous-looking limestone following all the way. None of the houses that I pass, present obvious traces of the earthquake: a few have fissures, but small. Within half a mile of Valva to the east, however, I pass a large house, in progress of repair, which had been much damaged, though nowhere overthrown. It stands almost exactly ordinal, is not far from square, two stories high, and two of its faces are 43° E. of north. The fissures are long and decisive, though fine and narrow, in walls but little perforated by apertures, and indicate a wave-path 25° 30' W. of north. The fissures were not far removed from vertical. I therefore am disposed to believe that at this spot, some powerful secondary nodal wave-point existed, to which the severe fissuring of this house was due, as, if produced by the direct wave, they must have shown a subnormal path, with appreciable emergence. I could not find any one to answer inquiries on the spot. The reflected wave from Monte Spagarino, Marzano, and many other isolated masses, studding over, this region of sinuous valleys, must have given rise to great perplexity of