of the 1 /land of Ponza« * 377 
The uninhabited ifland of St. Stefano furnifhes fuel in the like 
manner for the inhabitants of Ventotiene. 
It is probable, that all thefe iflands and rocks may. in time be 
levelled by the adion of the fea. Ponza, in its prefent date, 
is the mere (keleton of a volcanic ifland, as little more than its 
harder vitrified parts remain, and they feem to be (lowly and 
gradually mouldering away. Other new volcanic iflands may 
likewife be produced in thefe. parts. 
The gulphs of Gaeta and Terracina may, in the courfe of 
time, become another Campo Felice for, as has been men- 
tioned in one of my former communications on this fubje£t, , 
the rich and fertile plain fo called* which extends from the 
bay of Naples to the Apennines, behind Calerta and Capua, 
has evidently been intirely formed by a fucceffion of fuch vol- 
canic eruptions. Vefuvius, the Solfaterra, and the high volca- 
nic ground, on which great part of this city is built, were 
once probably iflands ; and we may conceive* the iflands 
of Procita, Ifchia, Ventotiene, Palmarole, Ponza, and Zan- 
none, to be the outline of a new portion of land, intended by 
nature to be added to the neighbouring Continent ; and the 
Lipari iflands (all of which are volcanic) may be looked upon i 
in the fame light with refpeft to a future intended addition of 
territory to the ifland of Sicily. If you cad your eye, Sir, on* 
the map at the head of my defcription of the Campi Phlegraei, 
you will better underftand my meaning. 
* The governor of the caftle of Ponza, who has refided there fifty>three years, . 
told me, that the ifland was flill fubje6t to earthquakes ; that there had been one . 
violent fhock there about four years ago ; but that the moil violent one he ever. 
felt there was on the very day and hour of the great earthquake which deftroyed 
Lifbon; that two houfes out of three, which were then on the ifland, were thrown 
down. Thisfeems to prove, that the volcanic matter, which gave birth to thefe 
^andf, is not exhau&ed. 
The, 
