ITALY. LETTER XI. j;j 



but the before-mentioned obfervation is fact, 

 though I do not attempt to explain it. The 

 effects of earthquakes on the fea are known, and 

 cannot be doubted * j but a difference of nine feet 

 is very fignificant. A French officer of the engi- 

 neers, in Corfica, Mr. Barrat, has fketched the 

 whole fituation, and given his plan to Mr. Guet- 

 tard, who has promifed to make ufe of it. Some 

 broken columns and decorations of this temple, 

 which have been found lying under its ruins, and 

 perhaps were placed at the fame elevation as the 

 worm-eaten columns, mew likewife fome pholade- 

 holes j but, befides them, none are to be obferved 

 in the whole temple. 



Behind this temple, in the adjacent cinericious 

 hill, in which appears a fmall lava torrent, is a 

 fmall grotte ; and they allured me, that now and 



tion would do ; but as that is not the cafe, it is entirely preca- 

 rious, as generally are the pretended fads and fuppofitions in 

 befcalf of the Malletian or Telliarnedian diminution of the 

 level of the fea. 



* The author goes again aflray, feeming here to hint but 

 at the firong commotions of the fea during the earthquakes, 

 and entirely to forget the effecl, which of courfe they have on 

 the ground and the bottom of the fea. The firit produce but 

 momentaneous effects and overflowings ; but the latter pro- 

 duce very often permanent ones. See the ifland Santerini, and 

 many other of that kind. 



then 



