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h 



ere 





•in 



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ie 



r ! 



ate 



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nn. 



! pita( 



iiiine. 

 iat the 



s 



never 

 more 

 i many 



oiongst 

 surface 



isac- 

 al de- 

 ltas be 

 >e, and 



cli are 

 apport 

 rarish- 

 eighty 

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rtility 

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from 



Cii. XXV.] 



TORRE DEL GEECO. 



653 



Vesuvius, he leaves the plain and ascends the declivity of the 



Hills 



Natur 



immemorial, the signs of the changes imprinted on it durino- 



man 



appear in 



after-ages 



to indicate a series of unparalleled 



disasters. Let us suppose that at some future time the Medi- 

 terranean should form a gulf of the great ocean, and that 

 the waves and tidal current should encroach on the shores of 

 Campania, as it now advances upon the eastern coast of 

 England ; the geologist will then behold the towns already 



mor 



hereafter, laid open in the steep cliffs, where he will discover 

 buildings superimposed above each other, with thick inter- 

 some unscathed by fire, like 



o tuff 



those of Herculaneum and Pompeii ; others half melted 

 down, as in Torre del Greco ; and many shattered and thrown 

 about in strange confusion, as in Tripergola, beneath Monte 

 Nuovo. Among the ruins will be seen skeletons of men, and 

 impressions of the human form stamped in solid rocks of tuff. 

 Nor will the signs of earthquakes be wanting. The pavement 

 of part of the Domitian Way, and the temple of the Nymphs, 

 submerged at high tide, will be uncovered at low water, 

 the columns remaining erect and uninjured. Other temples 

 which had once sunk down, like that of Serapis, will be found 



movement 



If 



they who study these phenomena, and speculate on their 



that there were periods when the laws of 



assume 



Nature or the whole course of natural events differed greatly 



scarcely 



from those observed in their 



time 



hesitate to refer the wonderful monuments in question to 

 those primeval ages. When they consider the numerous 

 proofs of reiterated catastrophes to which the region was 

 subject, they may, perhaps, commiserate the unhappy fate of 

 beings condemned to inhabit a planet during its nascent and 

 chaotic state, and feel grateful that their favoured race has 



Y 



misrule, 

 f Campania 



years of dire convulsion ? < A climate,' says Forsyth, 'where 



