No. m.-^-Paiisilipo and the Lago tVAgnano. 24f7 



The country houses which we have already mentioned arc 

 curiously contrasted with some dwellings of the lower classes, 

 which appear on the mountain side of the road., They are 

 excavated from the mass of soft and homogeneous tufa, with 

 the proper accompaniments of doors, windows, and chimneys. 

 An amusing example of this will be recollected by those who 

 have visited the " Villa Barbaia," which once belonged to the 

 king of Naples, and where the excavations are extremely fantas- 

 tic. The extreme facility with which this stone is cut has given 

 rise to extraordinary subterranean quarries, by which the inter- 

 nal constitution of the hill is interestingly shown, as we shall 

 presently have occasion to notice. 



As we continue along the Strada Nuova several sections 

 meet the eye, through which the road passes, too remarkable 

 not to attract the most superficial observer. At the west ex- 

 tremity of the ridge, where it abruptly falls into the plain be- 

 low, a cut of considerable depth has been made. Here we 

 have an admirable contrast of the superficial strata to those 

 constituting the centre of the tufaceous mass, and which is 

 elsewhere exposed. The layers succeed each other with great 

 regularity and sharpness. They are composed of various alter- 

 nating volcanic conglomerates, in which the common pale yellow 

 tufa predominates, replaced by pumiceous compounds of va- 

 rious shades of colour, some of which are so friable as to re- 

 quire to have the space their thin stratum occupied built up 

 with stone and lime, to support the more consistent forma- 

 tions, as the angle of section on both sides of the road is very 

 steep. The whole presents a very curious appearance. The 

 form of the stratification deserves particular remark. It is by 

 no means uniform, but bears the most irresistible marks of di- 

 luvial deposition. In most cases, it is gently undulating, not 

 unlike the newer deposits of sand which so abundantly occur 

 near Edinburgh, but usually still more irregular. Superim- 

 posed on this stratification, there often occurs a perfectly ho- 

 rizontal one, filling up the basins caused by the undulating 

 surface with dark, thin, and friable deposits. The whole ge- 

 neral line of the strata is conformable to the shape of the hill, 

 as far as I have observed, but the thin depositions just de- 

 scribed occur only on the flatter part, and seem awanting at 



