I beg leave further to mention a remarkable appearance in some of the columns of this temple, _viz._ that that part of them, which was lowermost, as well as that, which was nearest the capitals, is well preserved and pretty entire; while part of the intermediate space for two or three feet together is discoloured, as if it had suffered by burning; and also excavated in such a manner[65], as to contain multitudes of little shell-fish, which appear, like the pholades in some stones, almost totally inclosed within their cells, so as not to be got out without breaking. I know no way to account for this so probable; as by supposing, that the lower parts of these columns were secured by the mass of rubbish, that inclosed them, as the uppermost were by their elevated situation, from being perforated either by the corrosive quality of the sea, which (according to tradition) formerly covered the site of this temple; or by the animalcula, which are bred in that element; while the middle parts standing in the water were (perhaps for ages) exposed to the injuries mentioned above. I had no opportunity of taking the height of the uppermost line, where the above-mentioned alteration in the columns ended, from the level of the sea in the bay; which would have shewn how high the water must have risen formerly above its present mark, to produce the effect ascribed to it on this hypothesis. But, however that may be, the nature of the situation of this place[66] being considered, the innovation supposed to have happened in it will not, I presume, be thought improbable; especially in a country so plentifully stored with combustible matter in its interior parts, and consequently so liable to changes in its outward form, as this is, and has been for many ages. For an extraordinary instance of this we need go but a little way from this place, _viz._ to Il Monte Nuovo, a hill about four miles in compass, which in 1538 was cast up in one night’s time by an eruption, whereby the greatest part of the Lucrine lake was filled up, and the town of Tripergola, with a church, convent, hospital, and other buildings, intirely buried.