There was a very curious difference between some of the walls which had been thrown down, or very much shaken by some of the shocks. In some of them, the separate stones were parted from the mortar, so as to leave an exact mould where they had rested; and in others, the mortar was ground to dust between the stones. It was not less strange to see the effect of what must have been whirling movements in the ground. In some streets, one house would be thrown down, and leave the rest uninjured; while in others, all the houses but one were thrown down, and that one remained firm and unmoved. Two obelisks were twisted round, so that the stones of which they were composed, stood at cross purposes. This cut represents one of the two, as it stood after the earthquake, and before. [Illustration] "It appears evident that a great part of the rending and splitting of the ground was the effect of a violent motion from below upwards; and in a multitude of cases where the rents and chasms opened and closed alternately, we must suppose that the earth was by turns heaved up, and then let fall again. We may conceive the same effect to be produced on a small scale, if, by some mechanical force, a pavement composed of large flags of stone should be raised up and then allowed to fall suddenly, so as to resume its original position. If any small pebbles happened to be lying on the line of contact of two flags, they would fall into the opening when the pavement rose, and be swallowed up, so that no trace of them would appear after the subsidence of the stones. In the same manner, when the earth was upheaved, large houses, trees, cattle, and men were engulfed in an instant in chasms and fissures; and when the ground sunk down again, the earth closed upon them, so that no vestige of them was discoverable on the surface. In many instances individuals were swallowed up by one shock, and then thrown out alive, together with large jets of water, by the shock which immediately succeeded." The district called Jerocarne, was torn in a surprising manner, and in one spot the cracks resembled those in a starred pane of glass; and as these cracks remained open when the earthquake was over, it seemed as if the middle had been permanently lifted up. [Illustration] "In the vicinity of Oppido, the central point from which the earthquake diffused its violent movements, many houses were swallowed up by the yawning earth, which closed immediately over them. In the adjacent district also of Cannamaria, four farm-houses, several oil-stores, and some spacious dwelling-houses were so completely engulphed in one chasm, that no vestige of them was afterwards discernible." Amongst the many fissures that were opened, there was one, a mile long, a hundred feet wide, and thirty feet deep; and another, three quarters of a mile long, one hundred and fifty feet wide, and one hundred feet deep; and a third, about a quarter of a mile long, which was two hundred and twenty-five feet deep.