Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/209

148 found there, a number of interesting and, in England, rare books and pamphlets, on the subject of earthquakes in the south of Italy; and having received by telegram through Rome, the authority of the Royal Society, to obtain photographs of the more important points visited by me in the earthquake country, I arranged for the production of the chief part of those which are intercalated with this Report, and the others which are referred to throughout by (Coll. Roy. Soc), i.e., as to be found in the Library of the Royal Society. These were produced by a resident French photographer at Naples, Monsieur Grellier, to whom I gave in MS. an itinerary, and descriptive catalogue with sketches, to direct him to locality, object, &c. The work was artistically, well performed by him, but somewhat unfaithfully, several objects and views agreed for, having been left undone, in places of more than usual difficulty of access; and, after great delay beyond the specified time for delivery, the whole of the views were sent to England, with the catalogue stipulated for it is true, but without any corresponding marks upon the photographs, by which identification by me, became wholly a tax upon memory, and involved great loss of time in completion.

When waiting again upon the Minister of the Interior, to thank the (late) Neapolitan Government for the assistance I had received in my expedition, I submitted, through the proper functionary, two letters, one upon the establishment of bench marks, as to level of the land at Naples (Appendix No. 4), and the other on the work of restoration, of the ruined towns in the earthquake region. I have stated, in a former paragraph, the views of this despotism, as to the reception of these documents.