Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/45

16 mean time), which gave the elevation 1820·3 feet above the sea level.

The fall of the river Agri, is therefore 1171 feet within about 10 miles, or upwards of 100 feet per mile—a tremendous rush for denudation, with such a volume of winter water. Just at the entrance to this piano, I passed the ruins of a beautiful church, Santa Clementina, of the eighteenth century, that had stood isolated and in the midst of grass land and forest oaks. Its fine stuccoes were a sad spectacle of ruin; it had been brick vaulted (Photog. No. 275, Coll. Roy. Soc), and gave unmistakable proof of the direction of wave-path. The whole of the north flank and west end walls are down—direction, 139° E. of north to south.

The necessity of reaching Tramutola before dark, prevented my obtaining measures of emergence, that this building would have given. We had turned to the S.W. to ascend the piano, passing along the right bank of a small stream, the Capo d'Aqua, beneath the steep slopes of the hill of Monticello, to the S.E. for about half a mile, where we passed some farmhouses, or a small hamlet, now tenantless, which presented, by their walls, thrown outwards in all directions, evidences, not only of the direct or normal wave, but of a reflected earthquake echo, sent back to them from the flank of Monticello, which lay almost transverse to the wave-path; the echo reached them in a direction about 120° W. of north. It would have taken a day, however, to have investigated the phenomena perfectly, and involved an ascent to the top of Monticello, to get its direction precisely.

I reached Tramutola just at sunset, and having ridden