172 TRAVELS THROUGH 



worm-eaten by -pholades or daBylites, marine in- 

 fects, whofe fhells are (till to be feen, and remaining 

 in the many holes which they have bored. Over 

 and above this place, there is nothing like Inch 

 holes to be feen on thefe columns. Now as thefe 

 animals only live in the level of the lea, and 

 never domiciliate themfelves under it, or in 

 rocks above it , it is a natural confeqnence, that 

 the fea, during ibme time, mufl to have been 

 nine feet higher, and fuddenly have fallen to its 

 prefent level *. The fa6t deferves the more atten- 

 tion, as fome adjacent antiquities, as the temple 

 of Neptune and Adrian, are fituated above this 

 temple of Serapis : and as, for that reafon, the 

 latter feems to have been, in former times, upon 

 the fame level, and to be funk under it; in which 

 cafe, 'the fea ought to have decreaied nine French 

 feet more f. I do not decide any thing about that; 



but 



* A very rafh confequence ! Cannot the marble have been 

 worm-eaten by the Pholades before it was cut into columns, 

 and fet up in that form at Puzzuolo? May not thefe columns 

 by accident have been loft for fome time in the fea, and after- 

 wards reared in the temple of Serapis ? Or may not the ground 

 have funk for fome time under the level of the fea, and after- 

 wards been raifed again ? 



f If there was no faftof any ground raifed by earthquakes, 

 fubterraneous fermentation and fire, and none of the before- 

 mentioned fuppofitions were to be admitted, this fuppofi- 



tion 



