76 Mr Forbes's Physical Notices of the Bay of Naples* 



The preceding paper was upon the Solfatara. Resuming, 

 therefore, the natural order, we have first to describe the Cone 

 of Capomazza, which nearly adjoins to that semi-extinct vol- 

 cano. 



Capomazza exhibits a well-defined geometrical form, and 

 has one of the best-marked craters in this neighbourhood, 

 though rather shallow, the sides having yielded somewhat to 

 the influence of the weather. The principal material of which 

 it is composed is a light pumiceous conglomerate, often re- 

 markably silky in its texture, and there are found fragments 

 of real pumice to the size of even a cubic foot.-[- Adjoining 

 it, is the Monte Barbaro, the '' Gaurus inanis" of Juvenal, an 

 appellation which he appears to have given it from the immense 

 vacuity left by its very distinct crater. It was in ancient times 

 fertile, and remarkable for its wines ; a great part of it is still 

 covered with luxuriant vegetation, and the interior of what 

 was once the crater forms a valley of singular beauty and ro- 

 mantic retirement, in which there is a solitary cottage. Its 

 structure perfectly resembles that of Capomazza and other 

 neighbouring hills ; the disruption on the eastern wall of the 

 crater seems to have been produced at the time of the explo- 

 sion of the Monte Nuovo in 1538. The indurated tufa of 

 which it is composed is stratified conformably to the conical 

 surface, and the whole hill, according to Mr Scrope -f-, seems 

 to have been produced by a single eruption. The occurrence 

 of craters in the hills of Capomazza and Barbaro are nowise 

 inconsistent with the principles of submarine action, which we 

 endeavoured to explain in the third number of these Notices ; 

 but it seems probable that they belong to a later condition of 

 volcanic energy, and hold an intermediate place between the 

 craters of Astroni and the Solfatara, and that of modern cine- 

 reous cones. 



But a more important object demands our immediate atten- 

 tion, which, in some respects, may be considered as the most 

 remarkable and interesting in the Bay of Naples ; I need hardly 

 say that I allude to the Monte Nuovo or Monte delle Cenere, 

 which appeared suddenly only three centuries ago, the con- 

 fessed offspring of violent and partial volcanic agency, and the 



• Breislak, ii. 139. t Geological Transactions, N. S. vol. ii. 



