404 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



boundary. Sir "William Hamilton, in his work Campi Phlegrtei, gives extracts from two 

 letters written at the time testifying to this occurrence. The first is from Falconi, who 

 states : " It is now two years since there have been frequent earthquakes at Pozzuoli, 

 Naples, and the neighbouring parts. On the day and in the night before the eruption 

 (of Monte Nuovo) above twenty shocks great and small were felt. The next morning the 

 poor inhabitants of Pozzuoli quitted their habitations, some with their children in their 

 arms, some with sacks full of goods, others carrying quantities of birds of various sorts 

 that had fallen dead at the beginning of the eruption, others again with fish that they 

 had found, the sea having left them dry for a considerable time. I accompanied Signor 

 Moramaldo to behold the wonderful effects of the eruption. The sea had retired on the 

 side of Baiae, abandoning a considerable tract, and the shore appeared almost entirely dry 



Coast of Pozzuoli. 



from the quantity of ashes and broken pumice-stones thrown up by the eruption." The 

 other extract is from Pietro Giacomo di Toledo: "It is now two years since this 

 province of Campagna has been afflicted with earthquakes, the country about Pozzuoli 

 much more so than any other parts ; but the 27th and 28th of the month of September 

 last, the earthquakes did not cease day or night in the town of Pozzuoli. That plain 

 which lies between lake Avernus, the Monte Barbaro, and the sea, was raised a little, and 

 many cracks were made in it, from some of which issued water ; at the same time the sea 

 immediately adjoining the plain dried up about two hundred paces, so that the fish were 

 left on the sand a prey to the inhabitants of Pozzuoli." 



Distinct testimony is here borne to the recession of the sea from the coast-line which 

 appears to have been caused by an elevation of the shore. The testimony is confirmed 

 by an examination of the district between Naples and Pozzuoli, and around the Bay of 

 Baia. Stretching along the present sea-beach, there is a low strip of land bordered with 

 cliffs, the level consisting of sedimentary matter, shells, and marine remains, over which 

 the waters have evidently once lain, the cliffs constituting their former boundary. The 

 retirement of the sea cannot be referred to any ordinary gradual recession, as its tendency 

 here is to encroach upon the land ; and as there are no tides of any consequence in the 

 Mediterranean, no depression of the level of high water can be supposed, in consequence 

 of some change in the direction of the currents. There is every reason to suppose that 



