Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/512

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Geology of the Moglia.

Photog. No. 246 (Coll. Roy. Soc.) gives a good notion of the position of the town, and that No. 247, (Coll. Roy. Soc.) Fig. 244. Fig. 245. of the character of the horizontally bedded limestone found hereabouts, as well as that of the right bank of the Moglia. The town is situated on the tongue, between the Sciavra and the Moglia, and from the general direction of wave-path hereabouts, the blow must have been delivered to it, diagonally transverse to the tongue of land, and from the limestone masses to the east and north, and was necessarily severe. From this, from the antiquity of very many of the buildings, and their ill construction, their ruin is great. The fallen houses and hills of debris are perfectly unintelligible en masse, but two or three isolated buildings only, present fractures or fissures. These gave an average of direction, 175° E. of north, but very unsatisfactory, both from their character, and from the high wind and driving preventing good measurement.