Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/28

Rh three stories above the ground, and the principal floor had vaulted ceilings, of hollow pottery (Photog. No. 265). It is fissured from base to roof, in all the walls; several fissures are open 2½ inches at top, and give excellent measures of wave-path, which averages 143° E. of north to south. The N.W. and S.E. quoins, have suffered by far the most severely, and at these places, the roof and floors are down. The building is of great length, at least 150 feet. The fissures about these quoins are diagonal, and indicate emergence from the north, but uncertainly, $$e =$$ 15° to 20°. The fissures in the middle of the front and back walls, are much more nearly vertical, as are also some in the south end wall, and internal cross walls.

The unfortunate owner, Don Andrea del Fino, on the night of the earthquake, was with his wife in bed, his daughter sleeping in the adjoining chamber on the principal floor. At the first shock, his wife who was awake, leaped from bed, and at the instant after, a mass of the vaulting above, came down and buried her husband sleeping in his bed. At the same moment, the vault above their daughter's room fell in upon her; from the light and hollow construction of the vaults, neither were at once killed. The signora escaped by leaping from the front window, she almost knew not how. For more than two hours, she wandered beseechingly, but unnoticed, amongst the mass of terrified survivors in the streets without, before frantic confusion, permitted her to obtain aid from her own tenants and dependents, to extricate her husband. They got him out after more than eighteen hours' entombment, alive, indeed, but maimed and lame for life. His daughter was dead. As he despairingly had longed for