tlO OF THE ISLE OP CERIG0. 



a new difcovery, though it is not unfrequent in the 

 mountain Ronca in the Veronefe. The large oftra- 

 cites which he found on this ifland among the difper- 

 fed lava, even appear to be much like thofe of Ron- 

 ca. He does not believe that they have been floated 

 hither from foreign feas, though he at the fame time 

 confeffes that the Mediterranean * at prefent contains no 

 oftracites of this fort. The ifland muft have produced 

 them with itfelf from the profound abyfTes of the fea ; 

 and the climate of the foreign region, where they are 

 now indigenous, muft have reigned here once. Among 

 the volcanics, which are the moft numerous, there are 

 alio chalk-hills, which a fubterranean fire has cleft and 

 half calcined. That he met, however, with perfect ca- 

 verns in the volcanic mountains, which were decorated 

 with the moft beautiful pendant cryftals, is fomewhat 

 new, as thefe are only found in chalk- hills. He 

 contradicts what is affirmed by the antients, that this 

 ifland abounds in porphyry, and thinks they were de- 

 ceived by the colour of the rocks, which are of a red 

 hue like that of iron ochre. On the way from the fea- 

 fhore to the caverns which are fo rich in ftaladrites, 

 he found three volcanic cralera, but does not give us 

 their dimenfions, contenting himfelf with only point- 

 ing out fuch characleriftics as place the exiftence of 

 them beyond all doubt. 



The moft furprifing object which he met with on 

 this ifland, is an entire mountain compofed of petrified 

 human bones and bones of other land animals, to 

 which the inhabitants give the name of Bone-hill. It 

 flancls on the fouthern ride of the ifland, not quite an 

 Italian mile from the chief city. It is an Italian mile 



i in 



