No. Vl.-^District of the Bay of Baja. 99 



tants of these mythological scenes, where each superstitious 

 horror assumed a local habitation and a name. But the " Ache- 

 rusia pal us" is now deprived of its mystical accessaries, and 

 the tranquil Fusaro is adorned with a pleasure seat of the 

 king of Naples ; while under the beauty of Italian sunshine 

 it is hardly possible to imagine the gloomy regions of Tarta- 

 rus, the boat of Charon, or the desponding shades. 



A little to the south of Fusaro rises the Monte di Procida, 

 which extends nearly to the termination of the promontory, 

 and takes its name from the island adjoining the coast, which 

 it overlooks. According to Mr Scrope it is composed of a 

 trachytic conglomerate in irregular strata containing blackish 

 glassy felspar, and alternating sometimes with porphyritic 

 pitchstone. The conglomerate includes fragments of granite 

 and syenite. The hill terminates in the sea at a remarkable 

 spot named Scoglio delle Pietre Arse (Rock of the Burnt- 

 stones) consisting of a pitchstone covered with earthy lava 

 containing half melted fragments. The pitchstone is in some 

 places quite perfect, and contains felspar crystallized in six- 

 sided prisms, which have been observed half an inch in length.* 

 Some beautiful gradations of the pitchstone into pumice have 

 been here observed. The former is remarkably brittle. Rocks 

 corresponding to the " Scoglio delle Pietre Arse" are found on 

 the opposite coast of Procida, as we shall more particularly 

 notice in the next number of these papers. 



We thus reach the Capo di Miseno, the ancient Misenum, 

 where the Romans had a harbour for their fleet stationed 

 here. It affords on the east side a fine section of a volcanic 

 eminence, being on that side much degraded, as may indeed 

 be pretty generally observed in the volcanic cones of this 

 neighbourhood, -f Near the foot of the hill there rises from 

 the sea a spring of fresh water similar to the remarkable one 

 observed in the Gulf of Spezia near Genoa. J As this was a 

 marine station, it seems that the Romans were peculiarly anx- 

 ious to obtain for it a good supply of water, as for this pur- 

 pose only can the remarkable edifice in the vicinity called the 

 Piscina Mirabile have been designed. It is an immense qua- 



* Spallanzani's Travels, i. 139. 

 f Breislak. 

 X Lalande, Voyage en Italic, vii. 378. 



