The inhabitants are about three hundred, poor and miferable
beyond defcnption. 7 hey dwell in wretched cottages on the
higheft part of the ifland : we entered one o f them to fee an
ancient infcription, which the prieft o f the .pariih could not
read, as thofe poor people told us. The cottage was fo dark at
mid-day, that we were obliged to read the infcription by candle
light There is only one aperture in thofe cottages, which
ferves for door, window, and outlet for the ftnoke; there are
no divifion in the infide; not even a floor, excepting what the
ordinary ground furniflaes, and it is lower than the outfide.
From without, thole miferable habitations do not feem intended
for animals o f our fpecies ; and indeed they look more like the
holes o f wild beafts than cottages. The foil o f Sanfego is not
unfrunful, though it is as fandy as that of Stracane. It is however
little cultivated, becaufe the inhabitants are few, poor, and
oppreffed. They fow fame corn,, and cultivate , the. vine ; but
the nature o f the ground does not agree very well with, the
olive. The bafe o f the ifland o f Sanfego, is the ufual whitiih
marble o f thofe parts; foffil bones are alfo. found there inclofed
m their ordinary matrice, and accompanied exactly with the
fame circumftances as in other places. A hill o f find, about fix
miles in circuit, is raifed on that itraturn, which feems to have
very little curvature, and forms the ifland. The fides o f this,
hill are torn away by the. rain waters, and precipitate on all fides.
into the fea, becaufe they are not fuftained by trees, which are
hut rare on the ifland. Thofe rents are alfo very deep, and ruinous,
becaufe the ground contains no kind o f Hones, but is
compofed o f very minute fand, and of ftill more minute’and impalpable
fluviatile mud. In fome places, where the rain waters
do not tear the furface, they are often, undermined below, and
produce in time deep gulfs. This ifland, o f which I do not
find:
find any particular name determined among the ancient authors,
was, however, in ancient times, inhabited by people o f fome
confequence, and perhaps was the villa.of fome rich Roman,
fettled in the colonies on the continent, or in the neighbouring
iflands. Some tables of greek marble, and pieces of- foulpture
not contemptible, are ftill to be feen there. The infcription
mentioned above, and which will be inferted a little farther on,
belongs to no ignoble family; nor is there the leaft ground to
imagine that it has been tranfported thither from another place.
The poor peafant, who built the houfe in which it is found,
diicovered it in digging the ground he was preparing for his
wretched habitation, and did not even take the trouble to uncover
the whole o f it.
Thefituatron o f this ifland, and o f the two Stracane, the dif-
tinft appearance o f the various fuccefllve depofitions difpofed in
ftrata, and its fimilarity to other neighbouring iflands, feem to
me to merit-the reffoftion of an obferver in inveftigating the
ori-nn. It is very remarkble to foe an ifland, far from any large
river, wholly compofed, from the marble bafe upwards, o f
very minute fluviatile fand, and o f that kind o f fand which is
only proper to rivers o f a long courfe. 1 here are adtually no
fuch rivers near the coaft o f the Sguarnaro. It is, however,
certain, that, in more diftant ages, and in circumftances very
different from the prefont, a large river run not far from the
place where the ancient and noble caftle o f Albona now ftands,
and fell into the fea feveral miles further outward, paffing, as
the Po does at prefent, between low banks formed by its own
fand. Without this, the ifland of Sanfego, which lies at a good
diftance from the coafts.of Iflria, and is about two hundred feet
in perpendicular height, could not have been formed. I ihall
offer