Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 



227 



nation of 29° and 30°, must have been produced in some other 

 way.* 



The second is the discovery of the same marine shells in 

 the tuff of Monte Somma which exist in that of the Phle- 

 grean fields ;t seeming to shew that the former, as well as 

 the latter, had once been under water, and, consequently, 

 could only have attained its present elevation by being up- 

 heaved. 



The reluctance, indeed, which certain eminent geologists 

 in this country have evinced to the admission of this theory, 

 seems to have proceeded from an undue reliance upon the 

 truth of their favourite principle, that all the phenomena on 

 the earth's surface, which geology has revealed to us, are 

 brought about by a repetition of the same cycle of operations 

 which we are eyewitnesses of at present — that in the natural, 

 as well as in the moral world, there is a kind of circle of 

 events continually reproducing each other, and bringing us 

 back, after an interval of time, to our original starting place. 



For my own part, I am inclined to think, that the analogy 

 of the moral world might lead to more hopeful conclusions ; 

 the laws of matter, indeed, like the passions and capacities 



* See also Von Buch on Volcanoes and Craters of Elevation, Edin. Phil. Jour., 

 vol. XXXV. for Oct. 1836. 



t Professor Scacchi, in the Guida di Napoli (a valuable present made by the 

 king of Naples to each of the Scienziati who attended the Italian Congress held 

 at his capital in the autumn of last year), enumerates the following shells as 

 existing amongst the erratic blocks of Monte Somma, some of which he states 

 also to occur in the tuff of the same locality. 



Pecten Jacobseus, 



varius, . . 



■ — sanguineus, 



Ostrea cristata, . 

 Nucula margaritacea 

 Mytilus, . . , 

 Solen legumen, 

 Tellina donacina, 

 Tellina exigua, 

 Erycina Renieri, 

 Corbula nucleus, 

 Mactra stultorum, 

 Venus exoleta, 

 Chione, 



Marl. 



+ 

 + 

 + 

 + 

 + 

 + 



Cardium echinatum, 



• tuberculatum, 



Volvaria triticea, 

 Buccinura mutabile, 



macula, , 



Pleurotoma varia, 

 Scalaria communis, . 

 Turritella communis, 

 Natica Valenciennerii, 

 Dentalium dentalis, . 



coarctatum, 



Siliquaria anguina, . 

 Serpula cereolus. 



Marl. 



+ 

 + 

 + 



Lime- 

 stone. 



