The cells of the convent abovementioned are cut out of the mountain itself; and there you see plainly that its composition no way differs from the matter that covers Herculaneum, and forms the Monte Nuovo. There is no sign of a crater on the top of this mountain, which rises almost to a sharp point: time, and other accidents, may be reasonably supposed to have worn away this distinctive mark of its having been formed by explosion, as I have seen to be the case in other mountains, formed evidently by explosion, on the flanks of Etna and Vesuvius. Strabo, in his 5th book, upon the subject of this island, quotes Timaeus, as having said, that, a little before his time, a mountain in the middle of Pithecusa, called Epomeus, was shook by an earthquake, and vomited flames. There are many other rising grounds in this island, that, from the nature of their composition, must lead one to think the same as to their origin. Near the village of Castiglione, there is a mountain formed surely by an explosion of a much later date, having preserved its conical form and crater entire, and producing as yet but a slender vegetation: there is no account, however, of the date of this eruption. Nearer the town of Ischia, which is on the sea shore, at a place called _Le Cremate_, there is a crater, from which, in the year 1301 or 1302, a lava ran quite into the sea; there is not the least vegetation on this lava, but it is nearly in the same state as the modern lavas of Vesuvius. Pontano, Maranti, and D. Francesco Lombardi, have recorded this eruption; the latter of whom says, that it lasted two months; that many men and beasts were killed by the explosion; and that a number of the inhabitants were obliged to seek for refuge at Naples and in the neighbouring islands. In short, according to my idea, the island of Ischia must have taken its rise from the bottom of the sea, and been increased to its present size by divers later explosions. This is not extraordinary, when history tells us (and from my own observation I have reason to believe) that the Lipari islands were formed in the like manner. There has been no eruption in Ischia since that just mentioned, but earthquakes are very frequent there; two years ago, as I was told, they had a very considerable shock of an earthquake in this island.