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Show 450 TEMPLE OF JUPITER SERAPIS. Molll:e Bnrbaro. No. 30, Ground plan qfthe coad qfthe Bay qf Bai/Jl in lh• environ• qf Puu,.oli. 'l'he sea encroaches on these new in.coheren.t strata, a~d ~s ~he ~oil is valuable, a wall has been bmlt for Its protection ' ut when I visited the spot in 189l8, the w~ves had ~wept ~wa~ . art of this rampart, and exposed to VIew a re?u ar .series o ;trata of tuff, more or less argillaceous, alternatmg With beds No. 31. 0 a. Remains of Cicero's villa, N. side f Puzzuoli*. b. Ancient cliff now inland. . c. Terrace composed of recent sulJmarme deposit. d. Temple of Serapis. a a. Antiquities on hill S.E. of Puzzuoli. b. Ancient cliff now inland. c. Terrace composed of recent submarine deposit. of pumice and lapilli, and containing great abunddance of mtat hrinme shells of species now common on this coast ' an am(oLng s ) e d Cardium rusticum' Ostrea edulis, Don ax trunculus am. an . . th ·ummit of the cliff, is that from which * The spot here mdJcatcd on. P~l s . . t· l<cn and on which he observes Hamilton's view, plate 26, Campl egrrel lS u ' Cicero's villa called the Academia anciently stood. • NEW DEPOSIT UPRAISED NEAR PUZZUOLI. 451 ~the~s. The strata vary from about a foot to a foot and l1alf m thickness, an~ one of them contains abundantly remains of works of art, tiles, squares of mosaic pavement of different colours~ and ~mall sculptured ornaments, perfectly uninjured. Intermixed With these I collected some teeth of the pig and oxThese fragments of building occur below as well as above strata containing marine shells. If we then pass to the north of Puzzuoli and examine the c~ast between that town and Monte Nuovo, we find a repetitiOn of analogous phenomena. 'rhe slopin()' sides of Monte Barbaro slant down within a short distance 0of the coast and terminate in an inland cliff of moderate elevation, to which the geologist perceives at once, that the sea must, at some former period, have extended. Between this cliff and the sea is a low plain or terrace, called La Starza, corresponding to that before described on the south-east of the town ; and, as the sea encroaches rapidly, fresh sections of the strata may readily be obtained, of which the annexed is an example. Section on the shore north of the town of Puzzuoli. I. Vegetable soil • F1t . I0n. 2. Horizontal beds of pumice and scorire, with broken fragments of unrolled bricks, bones of animals, and marine shells 6 3. Beds of lapilli, containing abunda11ce of marine shells, principally Cardium rusticum, Donax 1flmcnlus Lam., Ostrea edulis, Triton cutaceum, Lam. and Buccinum serratum, Brocchi, the beds varying in thickness from one to eighteen inches 10 0 4. Argillaceous tuff containing bricks and fragments of build. ings not rounded by attrition 1 6 The thickness of many of these beds varies greatly as we trace them along the shore, and sometimes the whole group rises to a greater height than at the point above described. The surface of the tract which they compose appears to slope gently upwards towards the base of the old cliffs. Puzzuoli itself stands chiefly on a promontory of the older tufaceous formation, which cuts off the new deposit, although I detected a small patch of the latter in a garden under the town. Now if these appearances presented themselves on the eastern or southern coast of England, a geologist would naturally en .. deavour to seck an explanation in some local depression of high water-mark, in consequence of a change in the set of the tides 2G2 |