TEMPLE OF JUPITER SERAPIS. 261 



foot of the Andes, was estimated at one hundred thousand square 

 miles. The rise upon the coast, was from two to four feet. In 

 the year 1790 during several shocks, a space of ground three Ital- 

 ian miles in circumference, sank down near the town of Terra- 

 nuovo, on the south coast of Sicily. Such are some of the im- 

 mense changes effected during violent earthquakes. Numerous 

 examples of immense rents, and sinking down of mountains 

 might be cited did our limits permit, enough however, has been 

 adduced, to show that the force which is sometimes generated 

 far beneath the present surface of the earth, is almost beyond 

 conception, far exceeding any pressure which human agency can 

 produce. 



The elevation and subsidence of various lines of coast, deter- 

 mined by water marks, but performed in a very gradual manner 

 may be appropriately considered in this place. We commence 

 with the beautiful Bay of Baise, which the researches of Lyell, 

 Babbage, and other eminent philosophers have rendered a doubly 

 classic ground. On the golden thores of this beautiful bay, some 

 pillars and other fragments of an ancient Roman building were 

 long known to exist. These were once supposed to be the re- 

 mains of a temple dedicated to Jupiter Serapis, but the researches 



of modern antiquaries have rendered it probable that these relics 

 are the ruijis of an extensive suit of baths. Three of the pillars 



