202 M. Cappoci on the Erosion of 



level, and that permanently in one point of the gulf, without 

 lowering its level and retreating at the same time at the neigh- 

 bouring places ? and yet it is certain it did not retire either 

 at Naples, or at Castellamare, or at Ischia. In 1538, there- 

 fore,* it was the shore which in a single locality elevated it- 

 self, and was found dry. However, we shall subjoin the pre- 

 cise words of Porzio, a man of uncommon genius and profound 

 knowledge, and characterized by his contemporaries as the 

 prince of the philosophers of the day. " This region," he states, 

 " was agitated for nearly two years by violent earthquakes, to 

 such an extent that none of its houses remained uninjured, nor 

 a single edifice which was not threatened with an inevitable des- 

 truction. During the fifth and fourth day before the kalends of 

 October, the earth trembled without ceasing, night and day ; the 

 sea retired about 200 paces ; and on the dry shore the inhabi- 

 tants took a multitude of fish, and remarked springs of fresh 

 water spouting up. Finally, the third day before the kalends, a 

 large portion of the ground between the foot of Monte Barharo 

 and the sea near the Averno, appeared to rise up, and assume 

 the form of a nascent mountain. This same day, at the second 

 hour of the night, this upborne ground transforming itself into 

 a crater, vomited forth, with violent convulsions, torrents of fire, 

 showers of scoriae, stones and ashes !" 



These words seem to leave no doubt as to the elevation of the soil, 

 unless indeed we should wish to support the subtile explanation 

 furnished by the author himself, in a passage we shall now quote. 

 " The sea retired at first, solely no doubt because the exhalation re- 

 quiring an issue burst asunder and separated different parts of 

 the earth, and thusi-ent, it then absorbed the water by the small 

 fissures; whenceithappened that this portion of the ground, which 

 had been hitherto covered by the sea, remained dry, and the shore 

 was raised by the accumulation of cinders and stones." But, in 

 the very face of a visible elevation of a part of the ground, 

 " magnus terrcB tr actus . . . scse erigere videbatur,''^ why go 

 in search of a complicated and difficult explanation, in which it 



* The Temple of Serapis was in 1538, like Pompeii, buried to a certain 

 extent, which civcunistance prevented the three columns which remained 

 erect from being perforated at their lower part. 



