530 Mr. J, P. Lacaita, on [May 7, 



has been ascertained to be more subject to disturbances than any 

 other. Tlie sky was clear, the air still ; indeed unusual stillness 

 had prevailed the whole of that day. A sharp undulatory shock 

 of 20 seconds' duration, immediately preceded and accompanied 

 by an appalling hollow rumbling noise, had scarcely awaked the 

 inhabitants, who, according to the early habits of provincial life 

 had already retired to rest, when after a hardly perceptible pause 

 of about three minutes, a second and most violent successive and 

 whirling shock of 25 seconds' duration crushed thousands of them 

 under the ruins of their falling houses. Three other shocks were 

 felt on that awful night, and many others on the following days ; 

 but none nearly so violent and so destructive as the two former 

 ones. For nearly two months a slight shock was felt almost perio- 

 dically just before sunrise. On the 7th of March, about 3 p.m., a 

 violent shock, second only to those of the 16th of December, was 

 felt, which caused considerable injury ; and, according to the 

 latest accounts, up to the 28th of April last, the shocks, though 

 comparatively slight and harmless, still continued, and the people 

 were in a state of constant alarm. Such was also the case in every 

 one of the five previous earthquakes that have been noticed ; the 

 violence of the hidden agents at work was not at once exhausted by 

 the first great shocks, but continued slightly to sliake the ground 

 for months, and sometimes, as in the Calabrian earthquake of 1783, 

 for nearly four years afterwards. 



The seat of this earthquake was in the central group of moun- 

 tains in the provinces of Basilicata and Principato Citra, part of 

 the main chain of the Apennines, which are the watershed between 

 the streams flowing into the Tyrrhenian, the Ionian, and the 

 Adriatic sea, and form the upper basins of the Galore or Tanagro, 

 the Sele, the Ofanto, the Bradano, the Basento, the Sinno, and the 

 Agri rivers. The centre of action, as far as it can be judged from 

 the intensity of its terrific effects, was almost in the heart of the 

 province of Basilicata, in a group of compact limestone mountains of 

 the cretaceous period, the southern branch of the said central group, 

 which running from north to south between the heads of the valleys 

 of the Sinno and the Agri on the east, and the valley of Diano on 

 the west, swells farther south into the lofty peaks of Monte Cocuzzo, 

 Monte del Papa, and Monte Pollino, on the frontiers of Calabria. 

 On the declivities or lower peaks of this group, which are covered 

 with beds of tertiary marine marl sands and conglomerate, and 

 within a district extending over an area of about 216 square miles, 

 stand, or rather stood, the towns and villages of Montemurro, 

 Saponara, Viggiano, Tramutola, Marsico Vetere, Marsico Nuovo, 

 Spinosa and Sarconi, with an aggregate population of 35,570. Out 

 of this number more than 12,000, or more than one- third, in less 

 than half a minute were crushed to death ; two thousand severely 

 wounded ! The ground was cracked and convulsed in the strangest 

 manner ; chasms and deep fissures were opened in several places. 



