Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/31

10 shock from the subjacent limestones in a direction not many degrees removed from vertical. We have thus the following conditions, all conspiring to produce that total destruction, for which Montemurro is pre-eminent.

The total velocity of movement impressed, must have been, I judged, about the same as at Saponara. There were several walls, &c, by which I might have attempted its calculation, but none sufficiently unencumbered, or free from disturbance, to give trustworthy results. Thrown church bells or such like, there were none, all were buried; and whatever of displaced furniture, or other objects, had escaped destruction in the Palazzo Fino, had been removed.

The only uninjured (Photog. No. 269) object, was one of two small stone crosses, surmounting Corinthian columns, of about 15 feet in total height, mounted upon triple-stepped bases and plinths, of the same character and size as that referred to at Padula.

This was pointed out to me by one of the gendarmes, who were the sole authorities remaining at the ruined city, as a proof of its sacred character. It obviously owed its stability to the causes already explained. The other column near the Palazzo Fino, was overthrown and broken about the middle of the shaft; but it appeared more than probable, that it had been knocked down, by the fall of a