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of peafants well acquainted with the country. In one of thefe 

 I had the pleafure of feeing the quarries of fofhl fid. at Monte 

 Bolca Of thefe, and fuch circumftances relating to them as 

 the very Ihort time I could fpcnd there enabled me to colled, 

 I fliall proceed to give the Academy the beft account m my 

 power ; relating, firft, the fads as I found them ; and then the 

 inferences which they fuggefted to my mind as to the poflible 

 immediate caufes of this ftriking phenomenon. 



MONTE Bolca lies on the border of the Veronefe territory 

 about fifty miles W. N. W. of the Lagunes of Venice, which I 

 believe, is the neareft fea. I am not informed of its height, 

 but it muft be pretty confiderable, as I underftood from the 

 inhabitants that the climate is too cold for the growth of the 

 country fruits which are common about every peafant's houfe 

 in the lower grounds, fuch as apricots, apples, cherries, &c. 

 as well as vines. It forms one of the chain or ladder of fecon- 

 dary hills, which, from fome diftance within the adjoining 

 Vicentine, rife gradually above one another to the Alps of the 

 Bifhopric of Trent. 



Great part of this trad of country has been confidered 

 by many Italian, as well as other naturallfts of eminence that 

 have vifited it, as covered with produdions of extind vol- 

 canoes. The fuppofed lava of thefe diftrids differs effentially 

 from that of which the Euganean hills are compofed ; this 

 latter is of a whitiflx, yellowifli or brownilh grey, rovigh and 

 coarfe in the grain, and mixed with numerous minute frag- 



N n 2 ™^""^^ 



