Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/205

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
144
NO SECOND SHOCK—VOLCANIC LAKES.

He says, that at Senarchia and Calabrita the people felt it in the same direction. A Carthusian monk, who is present, however, says that he had heard at Calabrita that it was felt there, rather more to the south of S.E. to N.W. (or, say 44° W. of north). They heard the "rombo" at all these places; a very long, low, rumbling, continuous sort of grating thunder.

They had no information as to the exact time, and estimated the duration of the movement, commonly, at about half a minute. The second great shock, of an hour after the first, which was so disastrous, within the regions to the south and nearer the focus, seems to have been scarcely noticed here: many people, indeed, denied having felt it at all. The unusual light, was not here seen, and even the popular news, of its having been seen elsewhere, to the south and east and west, seems unknown.

Between Oliveto and Contursi, along the bed of the Salaris, upon the east bank, there are several copious springs of strong sulphureous water, issuant from the soft limestone rock. They suggest the probability, that the two nearly circular lakes further east—the Lago di Palo and Lago Pantone—may be extinct volcanic vents; and that a more exact geological examination, might considerably extend the number of such lakes in these regions, beyond those of Amsanctus and Monticchio.