Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/123

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CHAPTER XXXVI.

AVIGLIANO TO ATELLA.


I arrive at Avigliano after sunset. It has taken more than six hoars to get over about twelve miles of country, and the men positively refuse to venture on to-night, over the ridge and snow, to Rionero, which I had purposed to reach. So I occupy the remaining twilight in examining this place. It is a large town, but more filthy even than Potenza, and much more hilly and uneven in its streets and the ground upon which it stands. The line of perpetual snow at this time of year appears to pass through this town. The upper part is all frozen, and snow lies thinly upon it, while, at the lower part, the streets are wet and slushy.

It seems to stand on limestone. At 9h 0" p.m., Naples mean time, the barometer reads at the Locanda, which is rather below the mean level of the town, 26·5 inches, thermo. 38° Fahr., and the reduced level gives 3308·2 feet above the sea.

The Castello, at the upper part of the town, a very ancient, barrack-like old building, now used as a Gendarmerie, is ordinal, and shows fissures both on the south and west walls. All appear to be enlargements of old fissures of