nt has
ceased for several years, or has at least become almost inappreciable.
During an examination undertaken by him at my request in the summer of
that year (1852), he observed that the rising tide spread first over the
seaward side of the flat surface of the pedestals of each column
(confirming the fact previously noticed by others, that they are out of
the perpendicular); and he also remarked that the water gained unequally
on the base of each pillar, in such a manner as to prove that they have
neither the same amount of inclination, nor lean precisely in the same
direction.

From what was said before (p. 510), we saw that the marine shells in the
strata forming the plain called La Starza, considered separately,
establish the fact of an upheaval of the ground to the height of
twenty-three feet and upwards. The temple proves much more, because it
could not have been built originally under water, and must therefore
first have sunk down twenty feet at least below the waves, to be
afterwards restored to its original position. Yet if such was the order
of events we ought to meet with other independent signs of a like
subsidence round the margin of a bay once so studded with buildings as
the Bay of Baiae. Accordingly memorials of such submergence are not
wanting. About a mile northwest of the temple of Serapis, and about 500
feet from the shore, are the ruins of a temple of Neptune and others of
a temple of the Nymphs, now underwater. The columns of the former
edifice stand erect in five feet of water, their upper portions just
rising to the surface of the sea. The pedestals are doubtless buried in
the sand or mud; so that, if this part of the bottom of the bay should
hereafter be elevated, the exhumation of these temples might take place
after the manner of that of Serapis. Both these buildings probably
participated in the movement which raised the Starza; but either they
were deeper under water than the temple of Serapis, or they were not
raised up again to so great a height. There are also two Roman roads
under water in the bay, one reaching from Puzzuoli to the Lucrine Lake,
which may still be seen, and the other near the castle of Baiae (No. 8,
fig. 88, p. 509). The ancient mole, too, of Puzzuoli (No. 4, ibid.)
before alluded to, has the water up to a considerable height of the
arches; whereas Brieslak justly observes, it is next to certain that the
piers must formerly have reached the surface before the springing of