made upon this same coast
of Italy, by a naturalist to whom the world is much indebted for his
excellent remarks upon what he has, by his great industry, brought to
light. I mean the Chevalier de Dolomieu; where-ever he goes, natural
history reaps the benefit of the most enlightened observations. We are
now to avail ourselves of his Memoire sur les Iles Ponces.

The pumice islands form part of a chain of land that may be traced
forming a circular line from the cape Missene to the mount Circello at
the other side of the Gulf of Gaeta. The islands of Ischia and Procida,
which form part of this chain of land, might, from the inspection of the
map, be allowed as having once formed a continuation of the land from
the continent of Italy, even without the testimony of natural history,
that traces this connection from the materials of those masses which now
are separated.

The pumice islands form the middle part of that chain, and are the
farthest removed from that continent of which it is probable they once
formed a part. They are connected with the promontory of Missene on the
one hand, as being of the same or similar volcanic origin, and on the
other with mount Circello, by a curious circumstance in the island
Zanone, which, but a little more of the devouring operation of the sea,
would have concealed from our observation.

The island of Ventotiene, which is the nearest of them to Ischia, would
appear to be the ancient island of Pendataria, in which Julia was
confined. The marks of degradation in this island, I would wish to give
in the Chevalier's own words, (p. 52.)

"Cette isle continue a etre devoree par la mer, elle l'attaque dans
toutes les parties de son contour, ou elle trouve peu de resistance, et
elle ne cesse de creuser, principalement, tous les escarpemens du nord.
Il paroit, par les vestiges des antiquites qui sont sur la pointe dite
_di Nevola_, que sous l'Empire de Cesar cette isle avoit encore une
etendue plus considerable. Il s'y fait journellement des eboulemens; on
peut prevoir qu'elle diminuera progressivement, qu'elle se divisera, et
que dans les temps a venir elle sera reduite aux rochers de laves qui la
supportent, et qui seuls peuvent resister, pendant une longue suite de
siecles, a tous les efforts des flots; ce ne sera surement pas la seule
terre que le temps et la mer auront devoree, et que les vicissitudes de
la nature ont fait disparoitre avant que l'histoire en ait pu constater
l'existence.