216 Dr Charles Daubeny on the 



phenomena, which I have on former occasions presented at 

 these meetings.* 



Those who have travelled from Naples to Rome by the 

 lower and more frequented road, which passes by Mola de 

 Gaieta, Fondi, and Terracina, may recollect, that, after reach- 

 ing Capua, they soon lose sight of the volcanic tuff or pepe- 

 rino, which constitutes the subsoil in all directions around 

 Naples. They then find themselves upon a calcareous marl, 

 which, upon examination, will appear to belong to the tertiary 

 period, until they approach the hills which are ascended be- 

 fore arriving at the post-house of St Agatha. They there 

 perceive that the rock is again a kind of tuff, but one possess- 

 ing a different character, and therefore derived from another 

 source from that surrounding Naples, and that it may be 

 traced to a mountain called Rocca Monfina, which lies be- 

 tween the two towns of Sessa and Teano, one of which, Ses- 

 sa, stands at a distance of about half a mile from the inn of 

 St Agatha already noticed, whilst Teano is situated on the 

 eastern flank of the mountain looking towards the central 

 chain of the Apennines. 



Both these cities will be familiar to the readers of Livy, 

 the first as Suessa Auruncorum, the last hold of the nation 

 of the Aurunci, the second as the seat of the rival state of 

 the Sidicini. 



The Aurunci, however, in the earlier periods of Roman 

 history, had their capital at the summit, and not on the de- 

 clivity, of the mountain. Though they at one time appear 

 to have possessed themselves of a considerable tract in the 

 level country, both of Campania and of Latium, yet their 

 original site was the hilly country intervening. Thus they 

 are noticed by Virgil as a hardy race of mountaineers, 



et quos de coUibus altis 



Aurunci misere patres ; 



and those who like myself have ascended the mountain will 

 regard it as admirably well adapted for the stronghold of a 

 warlike and predatory clan. 



* The map in Plate I., p. 216, gives the relative positions of the three vol- 

 canoes alluded to. 



