NATURAL HISTORY. 99 



by running waters, fail not to increase the elevation of 

 the ground of plains very considerably. 



In the city of Modena, and four miles round, what- 

 ever part is dug, when we reach the depth of sixty- 

 three feet, and bore five feet deeper with an augur, 

 the water springs out with such force, that, the well 

 is filled in a very short space of time. This water 

 flows continually, and neither diminishes nor increases 

 by the rain or drought. What is remarkable in this 

 ground is, that when we reach the depth of fourteen 

 feet, we find pavements, and other ruins of an ancient 

 town, as boards, houses, different pieces of mosaic 

 work, &c. Below these we find a very solid ground, 

 which is thought never to have been stirred ; yet be- 

 low it we find a moist earth mixed with vegetables. 

 And at twenty-six feet, are entire trees, as nut-trees, 

 with nuts on them, and a great quantity of branches 

 and leaves of trees. At twenty-eight feet depth, we 

 meet with a friable chalk, mixed with many shells ; 

 and this bed is eleven feet in thickness ; after which, 

 we again meet with vegetables, and so on alternately 

 chalk and earth mixed with vegetables, to the depth 

 of sixty-three feet. At which depth is a bed of sand 

 mixed with some gravel arid shell, like those formed 

 on the coasts of the Italian sea. These successive 

 beds of fenny or marshy earth and chalk, are always 

 found in the same order, wherever we dig ; and very 

 often the augur racels with large trunks of trees, 

 which it bores through, but which give great trouble 

 to the workmen ; bones, coals, flint, and pieces of iron 

 are also found. Ramaz/ini, who relates these cir- 

 cumstances, thinks that the gulf of Venice formerly 

 extended beyond Modena, and that perhaps by tie in- 

 undations of the sea this ground has been formed* 



