£ « a ! 3
;its TliedMMancq.of this' mountain, fometimes grey,-
fometimes blutih,, o f unequal Jiardnefs, as wellasthe nature of
»¿s.. ftrata,; is the fame, as ,tbqfe; already, defcribed in this letter.
The .maffes fallen ■ from the., top, which: are met with on the
#oad*. are fametiine§. o f common Dalmatian marble, fometimes
g f very hard gra*eUy breccia, and fometimes of hard lenticular
flouc. I
^ ..It ¿ s yery curions to pbierve fome If rata, which compofe a
prominent fide o f mount Mo ilbr, flanking th e road o f Cliffa, to
the le ft of. the deep valley, through, which the Hyader runs.
T h e y prefen t, to die eye o f an obferver at a d ¡it a nee, many di-
vifions, that defcribe fegments o f a circle,., placed one above the
« t h e r e with the e x trem itie s'tu rn ed doyvnw.ards, diametrically
gp pofue to what is- commonly obferved in the, difpofition o f
curve ftrata. Whoever might pretend to y u d g e .o f this at a dif-
tance, would act" imprudently,, and .run the rifque o f giving
fome .ridiculous^e^planatioii,; | a s fis iq p .o ften the.qafe with, even
the greateft Mturalifts,. when they undertake to. unfold, fome
ftrange phenomenon, upon .a fuperiicial infpeition,. or according,
to the accounts o f others : likc that good mail why wrote the natural
hiftory o f the Swifs A lp s, without ever travelling.to ohier.ve
th em .... T h q eredtion q f the e x t r em itie sn f th,e ftrata o f Moflor
de~cep t i ° n diftance and .inferiority, o f the
fituafion, on 'whtch tlie qbferver ftandsi" ' T h e firft time I paf-
i ld , I believe^ this to be.pne o f thofe unaccountable phenomena,
whereo f jm c f e n f l e ^ e f i inippeflions vyithin the howels, o f the
mountains, and tofrentejfemetiqies difcqvet, po
to irn en i:'tK e ^ r a an "had
not"io"in faH," but only points o f ftiecircumference o f thefe discovered
r 2®9 j
covered ftrata, which are infulated by the eventual waters, and
from the top to the bottom o f the accidental hill, or prominence,
are laid horizontally one above the other. The infulated
rock, on which Cliffa ftands, is, for the moil part, o f marble
breccia, of fubmarine origin, fince little marine infulated bodies
are found among the fmall ftones. The fmall ftones themfelves,
that form the breccia, contain lenticulares o f much anterior date
to the ftoney fubftance in which they now are. The bafe o f the
rock is o f whetftone, like that on the fea cnaft o f Spalatro already
defcribed, between which, and the marble, there runs an irregular
vein o f calcareous hard ftone full o f calcinated Tejlacei,
and frequently pieces of bituminous petrified earth.
In the breccia are feen fome little black ftones, productions
o f diftant and ancient volcanos. On re-examining the
prominence o f this hill, from a fituation o f equal height, I faw
that it had been divided in part from the reft o f the mountain,
and that its ftrata correipond, both in direction and fubftance, to
thofe o f the mountain. The arcuated ftrata continue to deceive
the eye, till the obferver comes within reach o f feeing them horizontally;
then the illufion vaniihes.
The fort o f Cliila is undoubtedly the Avfrygiov o f Dion Caflius,
and the Mandetrium o f Pliny. The firft o f thefe ancient writers
defcribing the fiege and attack under the command o f Tiberius,
circumftantiates its fituation minutely, faying, m that there was
no plain of any kind near it, that the hill was inacceffible, fteep,
“ and interfered by cliffs.” He adds, that “ Tiberius, find-
“ ing the reinforcements that repeatedly came Up from the
camp at Salona to fuftain the Romans, unfucceisful, detached
“ a body o f troops, through craggy paths, to gain the heights
® e which