t 35 ] 
its being compofed of tbin ilaty Jirata^ which are of a 
yellowifli colour, and contain a few veftiges of foffil ma- 
rine bodies, but no regular bed of them. Sometimes an 
irregular mafs of marble is found among theScaglia, and 
near Arqua particularly, of a moft beautiful kind, much 
refembling the noted Florentine figured miarble ; with 
this further addition, that,befides the ruins it reprefents, 
it is alfo variegated by frequent dendrites, which, if I 
miifake not, are very uncommon in the former. Part of 
the tabernacle of the great, altar in the church at Arqua 
is of this marble, which alfo takes a moft beautiful polihi. 
If Vauclufe, near Avignon in France, is become cele- 
brated from the memory of the plaintive and eloquent 
PETRARCH, Arqua ought ftill to be more fo; fince not 
only his remains lie there, in a large farcophagus^ of red 
Veronefe marble, in the church-yard; but his villa at 
Arqua is ftill in being, and preferves fome paftoral and 
hiftorical frefco paintings, of himfelf and his laura, of 
no inconfiderable merit. His great armed chair, and the 
fkeleton of his favourite cat, are alfo ftill in being. This 
villa was his retreat, during his refidence at Padua, where 
he was a canon of the cathedral. The common lava is 
not fo frequent among the Euganean hills as in the pro** 
vinces of Auvergne and Velay, and feldom forms intire 
hills, which are moftly of granite, on the furface of which, 
where there is no lime-ftone, the lava is partially and fu- 
perficially fcattered, and fometimes mixed even with the 
mafs of granite. I have already obferVed, that the prif- 
matic group of Monte Roflb is nearly of the fame fort of 
F 2 granite 
