Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/428

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THE SECRETARY'S TABLE AND LAMPS.

normal to the face of the wall, the position of the lamps indicates a wave-path, about 157° W. of north.

There are many pictures in this house in rooms unused, hanging from single nails, which have been caused to swing in the plane of their respective walls. Many remain, just as left by the shock, and all tend to show a general north to south direction, with more or less of movement from a diagonal line approaching east to west. Their friction was too great against the rough walls, to admit of further deduction.

The Sotto Intendente, who, though a keen observer and very intelligent, knows nothing of science or of earthquake speculations, remarks to me that he has observed the buildings situated on the harder limestone, everywhere in his province, much more shaken and injured, than those posited upon the softer chalky stuff found here and further south.

The church of La Sala, like numbers of others in Southern Italy, has been built, not in accordance with ecclesiological notions, but to suit the lie of the ground. Its axial line is 20° W. of north, and it has a campanile, rectangular in plan, external to one flank wall, as in diagram Fig. 206. The upper part of this, previous to the earthquake, carried two bells, hung between the jambs of piers and arches on top. These were overthrown, down to the level of by