458 WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Vol. I. 



IF. Page 109. — On the subsidence op the coast at Puzzuoli. 

 Letter from C. Hullmandel, Esq. to the Author. — " Most travellers 

 merely pass through Puzzuoli in their way to Baia, and few being 

 acquainted with the Neapolitan dialect have had the oppor- 

 tunities which I enjoyed, of conversing with the natives upon 

 the subject. In the year 1813, I resided for four months in 

 the Capuchin convent of Puzzuoli, which is situated between 

 the road from Naples, and the sea, at the entrance of the town 

 of Puzzuoli. In the Capuchin convents the oldest friar is called 

 ( il molto reverende ;' and the one who then enjoyed the title in 

 this convent was 93 years old. He informed me that when he was a 

 young man, the road from Naples passed on the seaward side of the 

 convent ; but that from the gradual sinking of the soil, the road was 

 obliged to be altered to its present course. 



" While I was staying at the convent, the refectory, as well as the 

 entrance gate, were from six inches to a foot under water, whenever 

 strong westerly winds prevailed so as to cause the waters of the 

 Mediterranean to rise. Thirty years previously, my old informant 

 stated, such an occurrence never took place. In fact, it is not pro- 

 bable that the builder of the convent would have placed the ground- 

 floor so low as to expose it to inundations, as it now is. Moreover, 

 the small wharf at Puzzuoli, like the convent, is constantly under 

 water when westerly winds prevail ; here again it is evident that the 

 original constructors of the wharf never intended it to be in this state. 

 These facts appear to prove that the gradual subsidence of the soil has 

 been going on for many years, and is still in actual progress, and cor- 

 roborate the opinion derived from the appearances observable on the 

 columns of the Temple of Jupiter Serapis, that the country has been 

 subjected to alternate elevations and subsidences." 



"London, November, 1839." 



