178 THEORY OP THE EARTH* 



Following the coast from Ilatria to the north- 

 wards, we come to the principal mouth of the 

 ^thesis or Adige, formerly named Fossa Philistina. 

 and afterwards Estuarium Altini, an interior sea, se- 

 parated, by a range of small islands, from the 

 Adriatic gulf, in the middle of which was a cluster 

 of other small isles, called Rialtum, and upon this 

 archipelago the city of Venice is now seated. The 

 Estuarium Mini is what is now called the lagune 

 of Venice, and no longer communicates with the 

 sea, except by five passages, the small islands of 

 the archipelago having been united into a continu- 

 ous dike. 



To the east of the lagunes, and north from the 

 city of Este, we find the Euganian mounts, or hills, 

 forming, in the midst of a vast alluvial plain, a re- 

 markable isolated group of rounded hillocks, near 

 which spot the fable of the ancients supposes the 

 fall of Phaeton to have taken place. Some writers 

 have supposed that this fable may have originated 

 from the fall of some vast masses of inflamed 

 matters near the mouths of the Eridanus, that had 

 been thrown up by a volcanic explosion ; and it is 

 certain that abundance of volcanic products are 

 found in the neighbourhood of Padua and Verona. 



The most ancient notices that I have been able 

 to procure respecting the situation of the shores of 

 the Adriatic at the mouths of the Po, only begin 

 to be precise in the twelfth century. At that epoch 



