218 



HARDWICKE'S S CI E N C E- GO SSIP. 



but in this case tlie ash ejected, while sometimes 

 coarse and scoriaceous, has at other times been 

 very fine in texture, and probably saturated with 

 water, thus forming a semi-fluid paste. That this 

 has been the case, is rendered additionally evident 

 by the fact of the impressions of leaves and grasses 

 being perfectly well preserved in it, even to the 

 delicate tracery of the leaf- veins. 



The crater-edge gained, its interior must at once 

 strike the observer : a white plain, smooth in some 

 parts, covered with pits and hollows in others, 

 surrounded by white crater- walls clothed in places 

 with green shrubs, and having many a column of 

 red-tinged vapour rising from small, half-hidden 

 holes or gloomy-looking cavernous hollows. Eroni 

 one of these latter in particular there rise large 

 quantities of aqueous vapour and sulphuretted 

 hydrogen gas, and so great is the heat thrown out 

 that the hand merely approached to the opening 

 becomes at once severely scorched. The action 

 of these gases upon the trachytic tuff around is to 

 produce in abundance sulphate of alumina, which 

 is washed down by the rains into the central plain, 

 and to separate sulphur which is deposited within 

 the rocky crevices, while at the same time other 

 sulphates are produced in smaller quantities. 



An eruption from this crater took place in llOSj-'-: 

 and a lava-current flowed from its southern edge, 

 finding its way into the sea, where it now forms the 

 promontory of Olibano.* It is a very hard, grey 

 trachytic rock, and probably was but imperfectly 

 fi.uid. As Mr. Scrope has pointed out, it seems 

 evident, from the way in which the lava overhangs 

 the crater, that this last roust have had a good 

 blowing-out or clearing of itself after its protrusion, 

 which is indeed evidenced by the loose scorijB 

 covering the lava-flow in places. The whole 

 aspect of this volcano, which, on account of the 

 gaseous fumaroles, may still be considered active, 

 may well entitle it to the ancient Greek appellatioTi 

 of " Vulcan's Assembly-room." 



Erom the Solfatara the beautiful Bay of Baise is 

 well seen in all its soft luxuriance ; on the one 

 side, just below, stands Pozzuoli, the Puteoli and 

 Dicsearchia of the ancients ; on the other, with the 

 promontory of Misenum and its hills jutting out far 

 beyond, are the remains of the once magnificent 

 but dissolute Baiae ; while the whole coast-line is 

 strewn with ruins, many now partly submerged, of 

 the houses of Roman senators and poets, of temples, 

 and of baths; and Monte Nuovo, with its soft 

 outline,"an infant in age as compared with Cicero's 

 Villa hard by, seems like some deity newly risen to 

 watch over the shades of departed Roman greatness. 



Descending from the western side of the Solfatara, 

 and passing on the way, at some little distance, the 



• Scrope thinks that this lava-stream may probably be due 

 to an earlier eruption,— See "Volcanoes," p. 321, 



very perfect ruins of the amphitheatre of Puteoli, — 

 where Nero himself on one occasion made a show 

 of his prowess in the arena, — the sea-shore is reached. 

 Here a narrow strip of flat land extends between the 

 sea and what have formerly been sea-cliffs, from 

 Pozzuoli to near Monte Nuovo. Close to the 

 former place, though mucli obscured by surrounding 

 houses, stands the well-known temple, so called, of 

 Jupiter Serapis, whose three massive columns have 

 acquired such a geological importance on account 

 of the changes of level they reveal, evidencing as 

 they do a depression of the coast within the 

 Christian era of some 16 feet, its re-elevation to- 

 probably a somewhat greater height, and its slow 

 subsidence within quite recent times ; so Ihat now 

 the sea-level stands just at the base of the columns.*' 

 A short walk along the flat plain just mentioned, 

 and then for some little way by the sea-shore, 

 beneath low cliffs formed of horizontal beds of ash, 

 deposited ben:?ath the sea at an early period of 

 Volcanic activity and before the existing land- cones 

 were formed, brings us to the foot of Monte 

 Nuovo. At this point the sea-cliff presents an 

 unconformable section, nearly horizontal beds of 

 stratified sandy ash being overlapped by other beds, 

 which include near the cliff-top a thin, irregular 

 flow of black lava. Monte Nuovo is a notable 

 example of what volcanic force can effect within a 

 short time, for previously to the 29th of September, 

 153S, this spot was part of a level plain, and the 

 site of the village of Tripergola, while on the third 

 day after this date it was occupied by a volcanic 

 mountain 410 ft. higli, and li miles in cii'cumference, 

 the whole mass consisting of ash and scoriae, much 

 of it pumiceous, thrown out from, and falling round, 

 a central vent. No lava-beds, with the exception 

 of little runs a foot or two in thickness (as noted 

 above), seem to have been produced. The eruption 

 was preceded by the elevation of the long strip of 

 plain land already described, together with the 

 temple of Jupiter Serapis, and for some time 

 previously most violent earthquakes alarmed the 

 inhabitants of the neighbourhood. So great was 

 the quantity of muddy ashes and scoriae ejected, 

 and to such a height were they thrown, that " not 

 only Pozzuoli and the neighbouring country were 

 full of this mud, but the city of Naples also, the 

 beauty of whose palaces was, in a great measure, 

 spoiled by it. The ashes were carried as far as 

 Calabria by the force of the winds, burning up iu 

 their passage the grass and high trees, many of 

 which were borne down by the weight of them."t 

 At present the crater is nearly as deep as the 

 mountain is high above the sea-level, its sides 



* See Lyell's " Principles" for full accounts of this in- 

 teresting subject Also Phillips's " Vesuvius," and Murray's. 

 " Handbook for Naples." 



t Account by Pietro Giacomo di Toledo. 



