S65 



The river Elsa, which arises between Sienna and Volaterra, sur- 

 rounds the bodies, which its current seizes, with a lapideous matter. 

 A similar property is possessed by the fountains of Aponus, near 

 Padua. The Silarus, a river not far distant fr6m Sorrento, is thus 

 spoken of by Silius : 



Nunc Silarus, quos nutrit aquis, quos gurgite tradunt, 

 Duritiem lapidum mersis inolescere ramis. 



Lib. viii. 



In no part of the world, perhaps, do waters of this kind so much 

 abound as in Italy :* and in speaking of some of those which remain, 

 I shall take the opportunity of pointing out, on how very large a 

 scale this process of lapidefaction is sometimes performed 



The beds and banks of such rivers, but particularly those basons 

 which receive their falling waters, suffer a continual accretion of 

 this stony matter: thus diminishing the grandeur and beauty of 

 these waterfalls. Thus the Tiverone, which was the prceceps Anio of 

 Horace, is described by Misson^ as now forming a large and plea- 

 sant sheet of water; but the fall, he says, is not high* : and a more 

 modern traveller, the Count Stolberg, observes, that it has lost much 

 of its natural beauty, because its bed has been deepened, partly, 

 he says, to guard against its wild torrents, and partly to form mill- 

 streams : but the more cogent reason, perhaps, for thus deepening 

 its bed, will appear, on attending to the following curious account, 

 given by Mercatus, of the lake Velino, the waters of which pos- 

 sessed this lapidifying property, in a high degree. The river Velino 

 passing, in its course, the town of Reate, belonging to the Umbri, 

 spread over the neighbouring widely-extended marshes, and formed 

 the lake Velino, now called Logo pi6 di Luco ; then, overcoming its 

 lofty banks, its waters were precipitated down a considerable water- 



* Misson's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 65. 



