PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. 



1841. No. 19. 



Monday, \st March 1841. 

 The Right Hon. Lord GREENOCK, V.P., in the Chair. 



The following Communications were read : — 



1. On the Sea-Level of the Neapolitan Coast. By Sir John 

 S. Forbes, Bart. 



This paper is intended to give an account of the more recent 

 researches of the Italian antiquaries and geologists connected with 

 the well-known temple of Jupiter Serapis at Pozzuoli, which have 

 been verified in several particulars by the author, by personal 

 inspection, and extended to other parts of the western coast of 

 Italy, where traces of marine lithophagi have been found at a 

 height, as alleged by Niccolini, of even 250 feet above the present 

 sea-level. 



The most interesting modern observations are those of Nicco- 

 lini on the actual change of relative level of the sea and land, as- 

 certained by a fixed gauge which he has observed frequently be- 

 tween 1823 and 1838. In that time the land appears to have 

 risen through a height of 1 12 millimetres or 4^ inches ; and this 

 change has been progressively and not suddenly effected. 



