108 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. I. 



pillars were submerged in sea-water, the base and lower 

 portions having been protected from the depredations 

 of the boring shells bj accumulations of rubbish and 

 tufa ; while the upper parts projected above the waters, 

 and consequently were beyond the reach of the litho- 

 domi* The platform of the temple is now about one 

 foot below high-water mark ; and the sea, which is only 

 forty yards distant, penetrates the intervening soil. The 

 upper part of the band of perforations is now at least 

 twenty-three feet above the level of the sea ; and yet it is 

 evident that the columns were once immersed in salt water 

 for a long period. It is equally clear that they have 

 since been elevated to their present height, and yet have 

 maintained their erect position, amid the extraordinary 

 changes to which they were subjected ; thus incontrovertibly 

 proving, that the relative level of the land and sea, on that 

 part of the Mediterranean coast, has changed more than once 

 since the Christian era ; each movement, both of subsidence 

 and elevation, having exceeded twenty feet.-f And there, 

 at the present moment — 



" Those lonely columns stand sublime, 

 Flinging their shadows from on high, 

 Like dials, which the wizard Time 

 Had raised to count his ages by ! " — Moore. 



55. Historical evidence. — Fortunately, historical 

 evidence throws some light on the respective dates of the 

 most considerable changes of level, that the area on which the 

 temple is situated has undergone. From inscriptions record- 

 ing the embellishment of the temple by Septimus Severus and 

 Marcus Aurelius, we learn that the building was entire, and 

 occupied its original position, in the third century. In 

 1198 the eruption of the volcanic lake of the Solfatara took 



* Lithodomi, from llthos, stone, and demo, to build. 

 + For a full account of the phenomena, see Principles of Geology, 

 vol. ii. p. 268. 



