Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/401

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THE SOUNDS—THE TIME.
317

movement was sufficient to cause him to lose his balance when standing, and to fall upon the floor. He found some difficulty, owing to the second undulatory movement, in regaining his feet to fly from the shattered house.

No correct observations were made as to the time of the shock: all was confusion and alarm. He noted his watch, and by it the time was 10h 15m solar time, in Frankish hours. But he admits that all their watches and clocks are regulated by the setting sun, and are not reliable within narrow limits.

There was a second shock of considerable violence about an hour after the preceding, which shook down many buildings, that had been shattered by the first.

The Capo D'Urbano, a very intelligent man, made a curious and probably not unimportant remark, as to his experience of the sound. It seemed to him to reach him "through his legs, as he stood up," although, he added, "it was everywhere." This suggests the probability, that much of the sound in earthquakes may reach the auditory nerves, by transmitted vibration from the ground or other solid objects, through the bony skeleton; just as when a poker held by a string to the ear is struck, and thus may convey from a very small vibration an overpowering sense of sound to the auditory nerves.

I took from the centre of the middle arch of Polla Bridge, several intersections to correct magnetic declination by.

Monte Corticata bears . . . . . . . . . 170° W. of north.
Tower of Diano (highest tower) . . 179° W. "
Atena (high tower) . . . . . . . . . . . . 156° E. "
La Sala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152° E. "
Pizzo di Cirazzo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179° E. "