Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 221 



gist* first pointed out, on a level spot nearly at the top of 

 this eminence, as vestiges of the ruined city, pavements of 

 streets, corners of apartments, foundations of buildings, three 

 cisterns for containing vv^ater, together with heaps of hewn 

 stones, and remnants of very strong walls. 



Some of these were perceived by myself in the course of 

 my rambles over the mountain, and I found that they con- 

 sisted of the same material which composes the rock on 

 which they had been erected. 



No better proof than this could be adduced of the antiquity 

 of the volcanic operations to which the mountain owes its 

 actual configuration ; for, as Sir William Gell observed to me, 

 when I once descanted with him on the extreme disproportion 

 which exists between the length of period embraced within the 

 several epochs of human and geological history, a nation like 

 the Aurunci, to whom it was of essential importance to have 

 near their city good pasturage for the flocks and herds on 

 which they depended for support, would never have selected 

 Rocca Monfina for their capital, not only if the volcano itself 

 had been in activity, but had not the stone which constitutes 

 the interior of the crater been already in such a state of de- 

 composition, as to be covered with herbage, and to yield abun- 

 dant crops. 



"With regard to the geological structure of the mountain, 

 I may remark, that, with the exception of the conical mass 

 of rock in its centre which constitutes the Monte della Croce, 

 it is almost entirely composed of beds of a volcanic tuff, which 

 differs, however, from that met with round about Naples, in 

 the inferior degree of its compactness, in its more earthy ap- 

 pearance, in the more frequent presence of mica, and the rare 

 occurrence of the darker varieties of pumice. 



I remarked a red ferruginous variety, sometimes in beds 

 alternating with the commoner kinds, and in one instance 

 forming a kind of vein running vertically through the strata. 



The tuff continues from the town of Sessa till we approach 

 the outer brim of the crater, covered over with loose uncom- 



* Perotta, Sede degli Aurunci, as quoted by Romanelli, vol. iii., p. 444. 



