90 On the Geognost'/cal Phenomena 
The important work, “ Voyage Pittoresque on Description 
des Iloyaumes de Naples et de Sicile,” contains also an account 
of this Temple, in the Second Fart. The text is valuable, and 
imparts much varied information, though leading to no result. 
There are figures opposite page 167, drawn from hasty sketches, 
and arbitrarily finished to please the eye, but yet not far from 
the truth. 
Less praise can be bestowed on the restoration attempted at 
page 172. of the same work. It is only, as is indeed confessed by 
the editors, a phantasticai theatrical decoration, much too exten- 
sive and colossal, since the whole of this sacred edifice, as indi- 
cated by the dimensions, was executed in very moderate pro- 
portions, although adorned to superfluity. 
Any one may be convinced of this from the ground-plan, gi- 
ven in the sixteenth plate of the Antichita di Puzzuolo, and 
which is copied at the 170th page of t he Voyage Pittoresque. 
From all this it appears, that there is here a good field open- 
ed for the exertions for an intelligent and experienced architect. 
A more accurate measurement than we are able to give, by 
revising the ground-plan, according to the data furnished in the 
works above cited, — a minute survey of the scattered ruins, — a 
critical judgment of the style which might determine the period 
of its erection, — and a restoration of the whole, and of its parts, 
according to the rules of art, and in the taste of the period in 
which the edifice was reared, are problems which yet remain to 
be solved. 
The labours of the antiquary would thus be facilitated, who, 
on his part, would have to ascertain the kind of worship here 
practised. It must have been bloody, for there are still iron- 
rings in the pavement, to which the animals were tied ; and for 
carrying off the blood, there are gutters all round ; nay, there 
is even found in the centre of the middle elevation, a similar 
opening, through which the blood might be conveyed away. All 
this appears to us to point to a later period, of a mysterious and 
dark idolatry. 
I now return to the main point, viz. the holes of the shell-fish 
or Pholas, which are indisputably to be ascribed to animals of this 
genus. How they reached that height, and have only perfo- 
rated a certain portion round the columns, may be gathered 
