ghttime."[504]

It will be seen that both these accounts, written immediately after the
birth of Monte Nuovo, agree in stating that the sea retired; and one
mentions that its bottom was upraised; but they attribute the origin of
the new hill exclusively to the jets of mud, showers of scoriae, and
large fragments of rock, cast out from a central orifice, for several
days and nights. Baron Von Buch, however, in his excellent work on the
Canary Islands, and volcanic phenomena in general, has declared his
opinion that the cone and crater of Monte Nuovo were formed, not in the
manner above described, but by the upheaval of solid beds of white tuff,
which were previously horizontal, but which were pushed up in 1538, so
as to dip away in all directions from the centre, with the same
inclination as the sloping surface of the cone itself. "It is an error,"
he says, "to imagine that this hill was formed by eruption, or by the
ejection of pumice, scoriae, and other incoherent matter; for the solid
beds of upraised tuff are visible all round the crater, and it is merely
the superficial covering of the cone which is made up of ejected
scoriae."[505]

In confirmation of this view, M. Dufranoy has cited a passage from the
works of Porzio, a celebrated physician of that period, to prove that in
1538 the ground where Monte Nuovo stands was pushed up in the form of a
great bubble or blister, which on bursting, gave origin to the present
deep crater. Porzio, says, "that after two days and nights of violent
earthquakes, the sea retired for nearly 200 yards; so that the
inhabitants could collect great numbers of fish on this part of the
shore, and see some springs of fresh water which rose up there. At
length, on the third day of the calends of October (September 29), they
saw a large tract of ground intervening between the foot of Monte
Barbaro, and part of the sea, near the Lake Avernus, rise, and suddenly
assume the form of an incipient hill; and at two o'clock at night, this
heap of earth, opening as it were its mouth, vomited, with a loud noise,
flames, pumice-stones, and ashes."[506]

So late as the year 1846 a fourth manuscript (written immediately after
the eruption) was discovered and published in Germany. It was written in
1538 by Francesco del Nero,[507] who mentions the drying up of the bed
of the sea near Puzzuoli, which enabled the inhabitants of the town to
carry off loads of fish. About eight o'clock in the morning of the