70 Biographical Notice of Leopold Pilla, the Geologist. 



in this way that he recalled to his mind the mountain which 

 had been the subject of his daily study, and from whose sum- 

 mit nature presented herself to his eyes in the most striking 

 contrasts, revealing to his view its subterranean convulsions, 

 connected with the delightful picture of the Gulf of Baia. All 

 his thoughts brought him back to Naples. When, from the 

 height of the terraces of Campiglia our view extended from 

 the peaks of Mount Amiata to the banks of the Popolonia, 

 and from the Tuscan Archipelago to the distant horizons of 

 Corsica and Sardinia, my poor friend often interrupted our 

 reveries by saying, — " It is almost as beautiful as Naples, 

 but my Vesuvius is wanting ;'' and then adding, " How un- 

 fortunate it is that Werner did not lay the foundation o£ 

 geology at Naples ; he would have made it Flutonian.^'* Thus 

 the love of his country, and the recollection of its wonders, 

 were confounded in his mind with the cultivation of the 

 science, and gave to his animated and poetical conversation 

 a touching melancholy which agreeably tempered his vivacity. 

 During the years of his professorship at Pisa, Pilia pub- 

 lished, in succession, a comparative Essay on the formations 

 which compose the soil of Italy ;* a Collection of the Mineral 

 riches of Tuscany ;f two Memoirs on the Etrurian Forma- 

 tion ;+ History of an Earthquake felt in Tuscany, in 1846 ;§ 

 many notices respecting the Calcare-rosso, and on the tem- 

 perature observed in the wells of Monte-Massi ;|| lastly, the 

 first volume of his Treatise on Geology.^l The entire work 

 would have formed four octavo volumes. The materials were 

 prepared, but death left the work incomplete. As these 

 various writings are in the hands of all geologists, we give 

 no analysis of them ; which indeed would only be a faint re- 

 flection from the pictures present to your memory. I may 



* Saggio comparativo dei terreni che compongono il suolo de I'ltalia, Pisa. 



t Breve cenno sopra la richezza mineralogica della Toscano, Pisa. 



\ Sulla vera posizione del terreno di macigno in Italia, Pisa ; and Memoires 

 de la Societe geologique de.France, 2"^" serie, t. ii. 



§ Storia del tremuoto che ha devastuto i paesi della costa Toscana, il di 14 

 Agosto 1846, Pisa. 



II Miscel'anee di fisica e di Storia naturale di Pi?a, anno 1, Nos. 7 and 8. 



^ Trattato di geologia, t. i., Pisa, 1847. 



