Ch. VII.] 



SICILY CYCLOPIAN ISLES. 



79 



by one familiar with Somma and the minor cones of Ischia, for 

 anything but masses thrown out by volcanic explosions. From 

 the tuffs and marls of this district I collected a great variety of 

 marine shells*, almost all of which have been identified with 

 species now inhabiting the Mediteranean, and> for the most part, 

 now frequent on the coast immediately adjacent. Some few 

 of these fossil shells retain part of their colour, which is the 

 same as in their living analogues. 



The largest of the Cyclopian islets, or rather rocks, is distant 

 two hundred yards from the land, and is only three hundred 

 yards in circumference, and about two hundred feet in height. 

 The summit and northern sides are formed of a mass of strati- 

 fied marl (creta), the lamina? of which are occasionally subdi- 

 vided by thin arenaceous layers. These strata rest on a mass 

 of columnar lava (see wood-cut, No. 14) f, which appears to 

 have forced itself into, and to have heaved up the stratified mass. 



No, 14. 





View of the Isle of Cyclops in the Bay of Trezza. 



* See, in Appendix No. II., a list, by M.Deshayes, of sixty-five species, which 

 I procured from the hills called Monte Cavalaccio, Rocca di Ferro, and Rocca di 

 Bempolere (or Borgia). 

 t This cut is from an original drawing by my friend Capt.W. H.Smyth, R.N, 



