330 THE OCEAN WOELD. 



that the whole neighbourhood is volcanic. Pozzuolo touches on the 

 Solfaterra, on the Lake Avernus, and is not far from Vesuvius ; and in 

 the hay is the monument of other days, erroneously called the Temple 

 of Serapis. In reality it was most probably a thermal establishment, 

 established for its mineral waters, although the world has agreed to 

 call it a temple. 



However that may be, the building has been nearly levelled by the 

 hand of time, aided by the hand of man ; and the ruins now consist of 

 three magnificent marble columns of about forty feet high. But the 

 curious and important fact is, that these three columns, at about ten 

 feet above the surface, are riddled with holes, and full of cavities bored 

 deeply into the marble, and these borings occupy the space of three 

 feet on each column. The cause of these perforations is no longer 

 doubtful. In some of the cavities the shell of the operator is still 

 found, and it seems settled among naturalists that it belongs to a 

 species of Pholas, although M. Pouchet, a naturalist of Rouen, denies 

 this, "xis far," he says, "as I have been able to judge from the 

 fragment which I extracted from this temple, which is destitute of 

 the hinge, it is infinitely more probable that this mollusc is a species 

 of the genus Corattisphaga" In spite, however, of M. Pouchet's scep- 

 ticism, the mass of evidence is opposed to his theory. 



There are two modes of explaining the fact to which we have called 

 attention. To enable the stone-boring molluscs which live only in 

 the sea to excavate this marble, the temple and columns must have 

 been buried several fathoms deep in sea-water. It is only in these 

 conditions that the borers could have made an incision, and laboured 

 at their ease, in the marble column. 



But since the same traces of perforation are now visible ten feet 

 above the surface, it follows that, after being long immersed under water, 

 the columns have been elevated to their present position. The temple 

 has been restored to its primitive state, carrying with it, engraved in 

 marble, ineffaceable proofs of its immersion. Sir Charles Lyell has 

 consecrated a long chapter to the successive sinking and elevation of 

 this temple, which proves the fact most conclusively. 



Family two, the GastrochaBnidse, is a somewhat heterogeneous one, 

 as it contains Saxicava and Aspergillum. We have only space for 

 a short account of the latter, the animal which has received the strange 



