369 



Count Stolberg informs us, that immediately beneath the an- 

 cient city wall of Posidonia, Pcestum, or Pesto, a rivulet runs, which 

 has a petrifying quality, that was remarked as early as Strabo: Its 

 banks are reedy, and some little hollow pillars bear evident marks 

 of being themselves petrified reeds *. 



The waters of the Solfatara, or Logo di Bagni, abound with cal- 

 careous earth in solution. Cardinal D'Este had a Canal dug, by 

 which the waters of this lake should be carried into the Anio, to 

 prevent their overflowing : but it is remarked by Breislak f, that 

 the calcareous deposition is so abundant, that if they did not clean 

 it every three years, it would be closed up, notwithstanding its 

 width and .depth. Its waters, like those already mentioned, cover 

 with a calcareous crust the rushes, and other bodies it finds in its 

 course. When the calcareous crust, thus formed, is only a conge- 

 ries of fistula, or pipes, possessing but little substance, the name of 

 sj/ringite's has been applied to them; but when they are of a "thicker 

 substance, and have their openings almost closed, they are some- 

 times named osteocollce. 



It appears to have been by the formation- of a curious species of 

 incrustation, in this manner, that nature pointed out to art the ap- 

 plication of this property of these waters. This species of incrusta- 

 tion, represented Plate III. Fig. 2. is termed Lapis Sarnius ; it is 

 formed of a tufaceous incrustation of very small t\yigs, leaves, &c. 

 but bearing on its surface most correct impressions of the leaves on 

 which it had been formed. These stones have been termed Sarnian, 

 from a river in Campania (Terra di Lavoro) of which tl>e poet thus 

 speaks : 



* Travels through Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Sicily, by Frederic Leopold 

 Count Stolberg, vol. ii. p. 112. 



f Voyages Physiques et Lythclogiques dans, la Campanic, par Scipion Breislak, torn. ii. 

 p. 262. 



VOL. i. SB 



