24 Account of the 



tion limestone, similar to that of the Circean Promontory, of 

 which, in all probability, it is a prolongation. 



Farther north is Mons Ciminus, the highest point of which, 

 now called Monte Soriano, east of Viterbo, is 41 83 feet above 

 the sea, which is 620 feet higher than Snowdon, and only 200 

 feet lower than Ben-Nevis. This is another range of volcanic 

 hills, composed of compact lava, and sending out currents of it 

 on every side ; with the Lacus Ciminus, once the crater of a 

 volcano*. Lava streams are met with in Sutrium, Nepe, Bac- 

 canoe, and the modern village of Borghetto, near Fescenniura. 



Soracte is an insulated mountain, an offset, or out-lier, as 

 geologists term it, of the Apennines, on the right bank of the 

 Tiber, and composed of the same species of secondary limestone. 

 It rises to the height of 2270 feet above the sea, which is only 

 100 feet lower than Ingleborough, in Yorkshire. 



These are the great features of the country which surrounds 

 Rome ; but the intervening spaces are by no means level plains. 

 On the contrary, they present a very undulating surface, and 

 rising sometimes into elevations, which obtained distinctive ap- 

 pellations as hills; such as the Mons Sacer, the Crustumini 

 CoUes, which are a part of the same range as Mons Sacerf , the 

 Corniculani Montes, and those with the modern names of Mon- 

 ticelli and St Angelo, near Nomentum. 



The whole of the country surrounding these heights is cover- 

 ed with volcanic matter, either in the form of stony tufa, granu- 

 lar tufa, or in a less coherent state, which last often goes by the 

 name of Pozzolano, being that variety which, when mixed with 

 lime, forms a mortar that has the property of setting under wa- 

 ter ; whence our imitative Roman Cement has got its name. 



These volcanic products rise to a considerable height upon 

 the hills ; and they are found high up among the sinuosities of 



• ** According to some of the ancient writers, this lake was caused by a 

 sudden sinking of the earth (Am. Marcellinus, 1. 17, c. 7) ; in further proof of 

 which they say, that the ruins of a town that formerly existed on this site, 

 might be seen at the bottom of the lake when the water was clear. Servius, 

 in his note on the line in the 7th book of the ^neid, in which this lake is 

 mentioned (Et Cimini cum monte lacum, lucosque Capenos), alludes to 

 a fable grounded on this tradition." — Daubenp, 125. 



t Varro, speaking of the secession to Mons Sacer, says, " Tribuni— qui 

 plebeni defenderent in secessione Crustumerina.'' — De Ling. Lat. v. 14. 



