20 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



which burst in the middle, and gave rise to the crater of elevation 

 that exists at its summit," p. 275*. 



In the sixth part, for 1846, of the ' Neues Jahrbuch fUr Geologie,' 

 &c. of Leonhard and Bronn, recently published, there is a commu- 

 nication from M. Haagen von Mathiesen of Copenhagen, recently 

 returned from Naples, relating to the formation of Monte Nuovo, 

 which is accompanied by an original document of great interest, not 

 previously known, an account of the event by an eye-witness, of 

 which the following is a translationf : — 



Letter from Francesco del Nero to Niccolo del Benino on 

 the Earthquake at PozzuoLi, by which the Monte Nuovo was 

 formed in 1538 J. 



I am not aware whether you have ever been at Pozzolo. Six 

 bow-shots from the town, there commences a plain about half a mile 

 broad, directly before Monte Barbaro, which enclosed a part of this 

 bay ; but now the plain extends over the whole of it ; a circum- 

 stance which, although a natural event, nevertheless is very remark- 

 able and worthy of being accurately inquired into. Aristotle, in his 

 2° Meteor., mentions two similar events as worthy of record, the one 

 in Pontus, the other in the island of Sagre. 



On the 28th of September §, at mid-day, the sea-bottom near 

 Pozzolo became dry over an extent of 600 braccie (1300 yards), so 

 that the inhabitants of the town carried off waggon-loads of fish left 

 on the dry land. About eight o'clock in the morning of the 29th, the 

 earth sunk down about two canne (13^ feet) in that part where there 

 is now the volcanic orifice, and there issued forth a small stream of 

 very cold water, as we were told by some persons we interrogated ; 

 but others stated that it was tepid and somewhat sulphureous : as all 

 the people whom we spoke to were persons worthy of credit, I am 

 of opinion that they all spoke the truth, and that the water was at 

 first cold and afterwards tepid. At noon on the same day, the earth 

 began to swell up, so that the ground in the same place where it had 

 sunk down 13^ feet, by eight o'clock, or thereabouts, was as high as 

 Monte Ruosi, that is, it was as high as that hill is where the little 

 tower stands upon it ; and about this time fire issued forth and formed 



* For a full account of Monte Nuovo, see Lyell's Principles of Geology, 6th 

 edition, vol. ii. p. 158, where various original documents and authorities are cited. 



t This translation is from the German translation of the original Italian. 



X This letter was found in a volume in the library of the Marquis Capponi, 

 marked CLI, on which the following heading was written — Copy of a letter from 

 Francesco del Nero to Niccolo del Benino of Naples, sent to Rome this year, 1538 

 (by mistake 1558). This manuscript formerly belonged to the family of Roffia di 

 Samminiato. (Francesco Palermo.) 



§ There were other phsenomena besides this, the most remarkable of them all. 

 They are thus stated by a cotemporary author : " At the beginning of spring, while 

 the troops were attending divine service one Sunday morning, there was on a sud- 

 den so great a trembling of the earth, that the church and neighbouring buildings 

 were nearly thrown down. Moreover this was not the only earthquake that hap- 

 pened this year, for early in the summer Naples and Pozzuoli were shaken by con- 

 tinued earthquakes, by day as well as by night, and very severely at the beginning 

 of autumn." — Castaldo, Istor. lib. i. (Francesco Palermo.) 



