of the IJldnd of Ponxa. 37 1 
have pafled at different times many weeks in the Ifland of 
Ifchia, I never before heard of this phenomenon ; but in my 
defcription of this ifland mention is made of feverai fpots 
where, near the fhore, I had found, when bathing in the fea, 
the fand under my feet fo hot as to oblige me to retire haftily. 
This boiling fpring reminds me of one near Viterbo in the 
Roman State, which I have feen, and is called the Bulicame. 
It is a circular pool of about fixty feet in diameter, and ex- 
ceedingly deep, the water of which is conftantly boiling. It 
is fituated in a plain furrounded by volcanic mountains. A 
ftony concretion floats on the furface of the pool, which being 
carried off by the fuperfluous water is depofited, and is con- 
ftantly forming a labes or tuffa, of which all the foil around 
the pool is compofed. You have feen, Sir, the like operation 
in greater perfection in Iceland, at the famous boiling fpring of 
Geyfer. I am convinced, that many of the finer fort and 
moft compaft tuffa’s we meet with, in countries formed by vol- 
canoes, have been produced in the fame manner. 
The 1 8th of Auguft I arrived at the ifland of Ventotiene, 
about twenty-five miles from Ifchia. It is greatly improved 
fince my former vifit, feven or eight years ago, when his Sici- 
lian Majefty firft planted a little colony there. It then pro- 
duced neither corn nor wine ; now it furnifhes annually at leaft 
feventy butts of wine and two thoufand tomoli of corn. The 
foil is remarkably fertile, from whence it probably took its 
ancient Greek name of Pandataria. This ifland contains at 
prefen t more than three hundred inhabitants. The ifland of 
Ventotiene, and the fmaller one called St. Stefano, within a 
mile of it, having been defcribed in my Carnpi Phlegraei, as 
being both entirely compofed of volcanic matter, I need not 
trouble you further on their fubjefl ; I will only mention a 
Vol. LX XVI. C c c curious 
