98 Mr Forbes's Physical Notices of the Bay of Naples. 



especially from its occurrence near the surface of such hills, as 

 in the remarkable section formerly described, made by the 

 Strada Nuova in passing over the hill of Pausilipo. We 

 may, perhaps, have occasion to return to this subject. 



The Baths of Nero, the Pozzuolana quarries, the castle and 

 village of Baja, and its three temples, are situated on the 

 western boundary of the Bay of Baja or Pozzuoli, forming a 

 neck of land projecting towards the islands of Procida and 

 Ischia, terminated by the Capo di Miseno. The east side of 

 the promontory, therefore, bounds the bay, and commands an 

 extensive prospect of Naples, Vesuvius, the Sorrentine Hills, 

 and the more distant Apennines, while, from the opposite side, 

 the wide expanse of the Mediterranean, and the trendings of 

 the coast of Italy, may be seen as far north as Mola di Gaieta. 

 On this shore, at no great distance from Baja, stands the ve- 

 nerable rock of Cumae, the first landing-place of ^Eneas in 

 Italy Of this spot, so interesting in the earlier classical his- 

 tory of Italy, I have little to say. The rock on which its for- 

 tress once stood, though it has lost the figure, retains the cha- 

 racter of a volcanic cone : * and near it may be seen one of 

 the densest masses of lava in the form of a current in the 

 Phlegrasan fields. Near the ancient gate of Cumae, now cal- 

 led the Arco Felice, I picked up perfect specimens of pumice, 

 — a substance which we have elsewhere remarked to be rare in 

 the active emissary of Vesuvius. A little to the south of 

 Cumae, approaching the Capo di Miseno, is the only remain- 

 ing representative of the once sombre and poetical Acheron ; 

 it is the Modern Fusaro. This lake, which has an open and 

 cheerful appearance, lies in the flat alluvial land which here 

 forms the shore of the Mediterranean ; it is so low as to ad- 

 mit of a communication with the sea, and is at present chiefly 

 remarkable for its excellent oyster beds, the products of which 

 are much and justly esteemed at Naples. Perhaps it is worth 

 mentioning that these shell-fish have a slightly black appear- 

 ance, and that within the shell there is invariably a cavity, 

 which, on breaking the pearly crust which covers it, is found 

 to contain a portion of fluid with a strong sulphureous smell ; 

 as if to bear witness to the Plutonic origin of the very inhabit 

 * Scrope, Geological Trans, ut sup. 



