134 Geological Gleanings. 



loud rumblings, a large piece of land, full 600 moggia (a moggia 

 is something less than an acre), and at about the same distance 

 from the town, was found encircled by a trench of from ten to 

 twenty palms in depth, and the same in width. A letter from 

 Vallo, now lying before me, and written. much in detail, speaks 

 of " those two terrible shocks," and of the innumerable minor 

 shocks which have continued from the 16th of December up to 

 the present time — the letter being written oh the 29th of Decem- 

 ber. "A few minutes before the first shock," adds the writer, 

 " a hissing sound was heard in the river, as if vast masses of 

 stones were being brought down by a torrent. It is to be noted, 

 too, that all the dogs in the neighborhood howled immediately 

 before the first awful shock." 



" Let us visit some of the ruined places at the centre of the dis- 

 aster; — and I will speak in the words of a gentleman who has 

 just returned : " I found the country seamed with fissures, which 

 had at first been wide, but which gradually closed. The ground 

 was heaving during the whole time of my visit to Polla. Once 

 a beautifully situated township, with 7,000 souls, it is now half 

 in ruins, and the survivors were sitting or walking about, telling 

 us of their misery, and lamenting more that there were no hands 

 to take out the dead or rescue the living. Two country people 

 were groping amongst the stones of a building ; one found a body, 

 and throwing a stone towards the face called the attention of the 

 other, ' That perhaps is souie relation of yours,' but the body was 

 not recognized. I tried to get food at a trattoria, the only house 

 standing, at the corner of a street ; but the prorjrietor, who was 

 by our side, repulsed me, and refused to go in, saying that the 

 moon has just entered the quarter, and we should have another 

 earthquake. In most of these places, as in Naples, the deep, 

 heavy rumblings which preceded and accompanied the earthquake 

 have been much dwelt upon." On the night of the 26th Decem- 

 ber, the little town of Sasso, near Castelabbate, consisting of one 

 long street, was separated in two by the sudden opening of a 

 fissure through its entire length, each side remaining separated 

 from the other by a considerable interval — and so it stands. On 

 the 28th and 29th of December, both in Salaand Potenza, strong 

 shocks were felt, followed by many others of a less intense, char- 

 acter, and these still continue. The consequences will be that 

 even those houses which were only cracked will give way, and 

 those which were feeble will be reduced to ruins. In Naples, too, 



