c» 



178 



PERMANENCE OF THE OCEAN'S LEVEL. 



[Ch. XXX. 



mountain were 



4 



A.vernns and otiier points in the Phlegrsean Fields were 

 celebrated for tlieir volcanic aspect and character, the gronnd 

 on which the temple stood was several feet above water. 

 Vesnvins was then regarded as a spent volcano ; but when, 

 after the Christian era, the fires of that 

 rekindled, scarcely a siogle outburst was ever witnessed in 

 Ischia, or around the Bay of Bai^e. Then the temple was 

 sinking. Vesuvius, at a subsequent period, became nearly 

 dormant for five centuries preceding the great outbreak of 

 1631 (see YoL I. p. 618), and in that interval the Solfatara was 



Monte Nuovo 



formed 



Then the foundations on which the temple 



stood were rising again. 



more 



most 



b) 



the same lapse of time the area of the temple, so far as we 

 know anything of its history, has been subsiding. 



These phenomena would agree well with the hypothesis, 

 that when the subterranean heat is on the increase, and 

 when lava is forming without obtaining an easy vent, like 

 that afforded by a great habitual chimney, such as Vesuvius, 

 the incumbent surface is uplifted ; but when the heated rocks 

 below are cooling and contracting, and sheets of lava are 

 slowly consolidating and diminishing in volume, then the 



incumbent land subsides. 



^ lor Niccolini, when he ascertained in 1838 that the 

 relative levels of the floor of the temple and of the sea were 

 slowly changing from year to year, embraced the opinion 

 that it was the sea Avhich was rising. But Signer Capocci 

 successfully controverted this vicAV, appealing to many ap- 

 pearances which attest the local character of the movements 

 of the adjoining country, besides the historical fact that in 

 1538, when the sea retired permanently 200 yards from 

 the ancient shore at Puzzuoli, there was no simultaneous 

 retreat of the waters from Naples, Castelamare, and Ischia.^ 

 Permanence of the ocean's level— -In concluding this subject, 

 I may observe, that the interminable controversies to which 

 the phenomena of the Bay of Baise gave rise, have sprung 

 from an extreme reluctance to admit that the land, rather 



* Nuove Bicerche sul Temp, di Serap. 



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