obferver) the Vefuvian diary fhall be continued; and I hope one day to have the honour of prefenting thefe curious manufcripts (which begin now to be voluminous) to the Royal Society, if it fhould think them worthy of a place in the library of the Society.

"Having never had an opportunity of examining the iflands of Ponza, Palmarole, Zannone, and other small islands, or rather rocks, fituated between the island of Ventotiene and, Monte Circello, near Teracina, on the continent; and thinking that by a tour of thofe iflands I fhould be enabled to render my former obfervations more complete, and to communicate fome account of the only volcanic parts of this neighbourhood hitherto undefcribed, I determined to take advantage of the abfence of their Sicilian majefies (who were then making the tour of Italy) and visit these islands. But before I put this plan in execution, I made a long excurfion in the province of Abruzzo, as far as the Bake of Celano, anciently called Fucinus, and where the famous emiffary of the emperor Claudius (a moft ftupendous work for draining that lake) remains nearly entire, though filled up with rub. bith and earth in many parts, and of courfe ufelefs. The water of this lake, which is more than 30 miles in circumference, increafes daily, and is destroying the rich and cultivated plains on its borders. It is furrounded by very high mountains, many of them covered with fnow, and at the foot of them are many villages, and rich and well cultivated farms. Upon the whole, it is the most beautiful lake I ever faw, and would be complete, if the neighbouring mountains were better wooded. This

lake furnishes abundance of fish, but not of the best quality: a few large trout, but mostly tench, barbel, and dace. In the fhallow water on the borders of the lake, I faw thousands of water snakes, purfuing and preying upon little fifh like our thornbacks, but much better armed, though their deferfive weapons feemed to avail them but little against fuch ravenous foes.

"I went with torches into the emiffary of Claudius as far as I could.

It is a covered underground canal, three miles long, and great part of it cut through a hard rock; the other part fupported by mafonry, with wells funk to give air and light. According to Suetonius, Claudius employed 30 thousand men eleven years on this great work, intended to convey the fuperfluous water of the lake into the bed of the river Liris, now called Garigliano; and I make no doubt, but that if it was cleared and repaired, it would again anfwer that purpose.

"In its prefent ftate it is a most magnificent monument of antiquity.

"The whole country from Arpino, the native place of Marius, by Ifola, Sora, Civitella, and Capiirello, to the lake of Celano, is, in my opinion, infinitely more beautiful and picturefque than any fpot I have yet feen on the Alps, in Savoy, Switzerland, or the Tyrol. The road is not paffable for carriages, and indeed is fcarcely fo, even in fummer, for horfes or mules, and is often infested with banditti; a party of which, confifting of twenty-two, had quartered themselves in a village which I paffed through, and left it but a week before my arrival. There are many wolves, and fome bears

in the adjacent mountains, which alfo commit their depredations in the winter. The tyger-cat, gatto pardo, or lynx, is fometimes found in the woods of this part of Abruzzo.

"The road follows the windings of the Garigliano, which is here a beautiful clear trout stream, with a great variety of cafcades and water-falls, particularly a double one at Ifola, near which place Cicero had a villa, and there are still fome remains of it, though converted to a chapel. The valley is extenfive, and rich with fruit trees, corn, vines, and olives. Large tracts of land are here and there covered with woods of oak and cheftnut, all timber trees of the largest fize. The mountains nearett the valley rife gently, and are adorned with either modern caftles, towns, and villages, or the ruins of ancient ones. The next range of mountains, riding behind thefe, are covered with pines, larches, and fuch trees and fhrobs as ufually abound in a like fituation: and above them a third range of mountains and rocks, being the most elevated part of the Apennine, rife much higher, and, being covered with eternal fnow, make a beautiful contraft with the rich valley above mentioned; and the fnow is at fo great a distance, as not to give that uncomfortable chill to the air, which I have always found in the narrow vallies of the Alps and the Tyrol.

"On the 15th of August laft I went in a felucca to the island of Ifchia. I have nothing to add to my former obfervations on this ifland, already communicated to the Royal Society, except that about fixty yards from the fhore, at a place called St. Angelo, fituated between the towns of Ifchia and

Furia, a column of boiling water bubbles upon the furface of the fea with great force, and communicates its heat to the water of the fea near it; but as the wind was very high, and the furf confiderable, I was not able then to examine this curious pot as I could have wifhed, but will return there on purpose fome other time. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood told me, that it always boiled up in the fame manner, winter and fummer; and that it was of great ufe to them in bending their planks for fhipbuilding; and that the fishermen alfo frequently made use of this natural cauldron to boil their fish. Though I have paffed at different times many weeks in the ifland of Ifchia, I never before heard of this phænomenon; but in my defcription of this ifland mention is made of feveral spots 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 exceedingly deep, the water of which is con ftantly boil ng. It is fituated in a plain furrounded by volcanic mountains. A tony concretion floats on the furface of the pool, which being carried off by the fuperfluous water is depofited, and is conftantly forming a labes or tuffa, of which all the foil around the pool is compofed.

"The 18th 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 Sicilian majefty first planted a little colony there.

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It

then

then produced neither corn nor wine; now it furnishes annually at least feventy butts of wine and two thousand tomoli of corn. The foil is remarkably fertile, from whence it probably took its ancient Greek name of Pandataria. 1 his ifland contains at prefent more than three hundred inhabitants. I will mention a curious circumstance in the natural history of birds, of which I was informed by an officer of the garrifon of Ventotiene who is a great fportfman, and fhoots often in the ifland of St. Stefano, inhabited only by hawks, and a large kind of fea-gulls ; but is occafionally vifited, as a relting place by divers forts of birds of paflage. In the month of May great flights of quails arrive there from Africa, fpent with fatigue; and many of them fall an eafy prey for the hawks and fea gulls; but, as their arrival depends upon one prevailing wind, there is often an interval of many days between one flight and another. My informer aflured me, that the hawks confiantly, during the flights, make a provifion of each day's prey, laying them up in feparate heaps of fix or feven near their haunts, always feeding firft upon those of the oldeft date. The fea gulls have not the fame forefight, but geedly fall upon their unhappy victims in their languid ftate before they reach the fhore, and, having beat them down into the fea, fwallow numbers of them whole. Extraordinary as this may appear, yet as facts related by perfons of credibility in any branch of natural history are always pleafing, I thought you would excufe this digreffion. Give me leave likewife to add, for the information of the curious in antiquities, that, during my itay in the illand of Ventutiene,

I got out of the ruins of an elegant ancient bath (fuppofed to have been built for the ufe of Julia, daughter of Auguftus, whilft he was in exile here) a fragment of a tile, on which are ftamped the following characters in baflo relievo,

HACINI

IVLIAI

AVGVS. F

which, according to the interpre, tation of a celebrated antiquary at Naples, mean Opus Hacini ́ ad commodum Balnei Juli Augufte factum. I was informed, that feveral entire tiles, with a like in fcrip ion, had been dug up on the fame spot, and had been made use of in building the church and bar, racks newly erected in this ifland, Another fragment of a tile was likewife found here, and given to me, with the following infcription:

SAB. API.

which the fame antiquary explains, Sabine Augufte, Piæ Imperatrici dicatum Balneum; but, I believe, there is no mention, in ancient authors of Sabina having been at Pandataria: of Julia's banishment to this ifland there can be no doubt.

"Between Ventotiene and the ifland of Ponza, and from the lat ter at the distance of about twelve miles, a group of rocks rife feveral feet above the furface of the fea. They are called the Botte, and are compofed of a compact lava; probably they are the mall remains of another volcanic island, the fofter parts of which may have been carried off and levelled by the action of the fea, which is open and violent here.

"The 20th of Auguft I arrived at the island of Ponza, about thirty miles from Ventotiene, and the next day I went round it in

my

my boat. It is near five miles long its greatest breadth not more than half a mile, and in fome parts not more than five hundred feet. It is furrounded by innumerable detached rocks, fome of them very high, and most of which are of lava; in many are regularly formed bafaites, but none in large columns. In fome parts the bafaltes have a reddish tint of iron ochre, are very finall, and irregularly laid one over another. Some maffes of them are in a perpendicular, others in an horizontal, and others again in an inclined pofition: and the rocks themfelves, in which thefe maffes are found, are lava of the fame nature as the bafaltes. At first fight thefe rocks have very much the appearance of the ruins of ancient Roman brick or rather tile buildings. One rock is compofed of large fpherical bafaltes; and in many parts of the ifland I found the lava had inclined to take the like fpherical form, though on a much fmaller fcale, fome of the first mentioned round bafaltes being near two feet in diameter. All thefe rocks have certainly been detached by the action of the fea from the island, which is entirely compofed of volcanic matter, lava's, and tuffa's, of various qualities and tints, green, yellow, black, and white. Some of the tuffa's, as well as the lava's, are of a texture more compact than others; and in fome parts of the ifland great tracts feem to have undergone the fame operation as is in full force at a fpot called the Pifciarelli; on the outfide of the Solfaterra, near Puzzole, and where a hot fulphu reous vitriolic acid vapour converts all which it penetrates, whether lava's, tuffa's, volcanic ales, or pumice ftones, into a pure clay,

moftly white, or with a light tint of red, blue, green, or yellow.

"In one part of the iiland there is a fort of tuffa, remarkably good for the purpose of building. It is as hard as our Bath ftone, and nearly of the fame colour, without any mixture of fragments of lava or pumice stone, which usually abound in the tuffa's in the neigh bourhood of Naples, Baia, and Puzzole.

"When I was laft in England, I enquired of many of the manufacturers of glass, whether it had ever happened, that the glass, cool, ing in their furnaces had taken any diitinct forms like prifms or cryftallizations; but I got no fatisfactory anfwer until I applied to the ingenious Mr. Parker, of Fleet ftreet, who not only informed me, that, fome years ago, a quantity of his flint glafs had been rendered unferviceable by taking fuch a form in cooling; but alfo gave me fcveral curious fpecimens of the glafs itself; fome of them are in lamine, which may be easily feparated; and others refemble balfaltic columns in miniature, having regular faces. I was much pleased with this difcovery, proving to me be yond a doubt, the volcanic origin of most bafaltes. Many of the, rocks of lava of the island of Ponza are, with refpect to their configus, rations, ftrikingly like the fpeci mens of Mr. Parker's above mentioned glafs, none being very regularly formed bafaltes, but all having a tendency towards it. Mr. Parker could not account for the accident that occafioned his glafs to take the bafaltic forms; but 1 have remarked both in Sicily and at Naples, that fuch lavas as have run into the fea, are either formed into regular bafaltes, or have a

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great

great tendency towards fuch a form. The lava's of Mount Etna, which ran into the fea near Iacei, as appears in my account of them in the Campi Phlegrai, are perfect bafaltes; and a lava that ran into the fea from Mount Vefuvius, near Torre del Greco, in 1631, has an evident tendency to the bafaltic forms. On Mount Vefuvius, I never found any thing like columns of bafaltes, except the above mentioned at Torre del Greco, and fome fragments of very complete ones, which I picked up near the crater, after the eruption of 1779, and which had been thrown out of the mouth of the volcano.

"The island of Palmarole, which is about four miles from Ponza, is not much more than a mile in circumference, is compofed of the fame volcanic matter, and probably was once a part of Ponza; and indeed it appears as if the island of Zannone, which lies at about the fame diance from the island of Ponza, was once likewife a part of the fame ifland of Ponza; for many rocks of lava rife above water in a line between the two laft mentioned islands, and the water is much fhallower there than in the other parts of the gulf of Terracina.

"The island of Zannone is larg er and much higher than Palmarole, and the half of the island nearest the continent is compofed of a lime ftone, exactly fimilar to that of the Apennines, on the continent near it; the other half is compofed of lava's and tuffa's, refembling in every refpect the foil of the other iflands juft defcribed. Neither Palmarole, nor Zannone are inhabited; but the latter furnishes brushwood in abundance for the ufe of the inhabitants of Ponza, whose number, including the

garrifon, amounts to near feventeen hundred. The uninhabited iland of St. Stefano furnishes-fuel in the like manner for the inhal itants of Ventotiene.

"It is probable, that these if lands and rocks may in time be levelled by the action of the fea. Ponza, in its prefent state, is the mere fkeleton of a volcanic island, as little more than its harder vitrified parts remain, and they feem to be flowly and gradually mouldering away. Other new volcanic islands may likewise be produced in thefe parts.

"The gulfs of Gaeta and Terracina may, in the course of time, become another Campo Felice; for, as has been mentioned in one of my former communications on this fub. jet, their rich and fertile plain fo called, which extends from the bay of Naples to the Apennines, be hind Caferta and Capua, has evidently been entirely formed by a fucceffion of fuch volcanic eruptions. Vefuvius, the Solfaterra, and the high volcanic ground on which great part of this city is built, were once probably iflands; and we may conceive the islands of Procita, lichia, Ventotiene, Palmarole, Ponza, and Zannone, 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 in the fame fight with respect to a future intended addition of territo ry to the ifland of Sicily.

"The more opportunities I have of examining this volcanic country, the more I am convinced of the truth of what I have already ventured to advance, which is that volcanos fhould be confidered in a creative rather than in a deftructive light, Many new difco