( ^74 ) 



of Attica dlftant twenty miles from Athens, 

 when, in 1785, I accompanied his Excel- 

 lency the Venetian Envoy, the Cavaliere 

 Zulian, to Conftantinople. I there found 

 pumices fcattered over the ground, to my 

 no little furprife, as tlie place exhibited no 

 indications of being volcanic. They were 

 of that kind which, from their levity, fwim 

 in water ; and, being of a glofeofe figure, I 

 fufpeQed that they had once flowed. On 

 defcending the promontory on the top of 

 which thefe pumices are found, and pro- 

 ceeding to the fhore, near a narrow penin- 

 fula, expofed to the dafliing of the waves, I 

 found three other fimilar pumices, which 

 authorifed me to conclude that thofe on 

 the height abave, which is about one hun- 

 dred and fixty feet above the level of the 

 fea, were fome of thofe that had been 

 thrown by the waves on the fhore, and af- 

 terwards carried thither by men : the only 

 explanation of which, in my opinion, the 

 cafe admitted. To the fhore they had been 

 brought by the fea ; for it is well known 

 that many illands in the Archipelago are 



volcanic; 



