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attended to the immenfe excavations made to deepen the bafon of the harbour, which had
coll vaft trouble and expence, and from which his Sardinian Majefly was not deterred,
though fotnc deemed it impraâicable to give to the bafon fuffieient depth to admit even
merchantmen, on account of the calcareous ilrata above alluded to, which were upwards
o f t e n or twelve feet below the level of the fea. This difficult undertaking has however
been completed by the ingenious Mr. Michaud, who was at that Ume chief engineer of the
harbour. To him we are indebted for the invention of blowing up mines in the fea, whieli
was efFeâed by means of a tin cylindrical cartridge, of about one foot and a half in lengtli
and dn-ee inches in diameter, placed in the rock, after a hole had been fir ft bored by
means of an iron crow. To this cartridge was fixed another long, narrow cylinder (whofe
height was proportionate to the depth of the water) of two or three lines diameter, which
contained the match for fetting fire to the powder.
The eiFcft of the explofion was fuch, that, although the ftrata of thé rock were tliiek,
and covered by fuch a body of water, Mr. M. fnccecded in deepening the harbour to nineteen
or twenty feet, with gi'eater facility than might have been cxpefted.
As for the beds of fand and gravel which cover the northern part of the rock, I am
clearly of opinion that they owe their origin to the laft retreat of the waters, at a time when
the)' ftm occupied the bottom of the vaUeys, when the tops of the mountains were covered
widi trees.
This fécond fuppofition appears to be ftrengtliened by the following fait. In the
excavations above mentioned, after the men had taken off nine or ten feet of gravel and
vegetable earth, fcveral large petrified trees were found, refembling the olive in Uie form
and texture. Thefe trees were well prefcrved, and lay on the ftrafa in a dir^Aion tending
from north to fouth, whieh is fimilar to that of the valley. Their roots were alfo turned
towards the north. They have been fince cut and fent to different places, where they have
been found fufceptible of a beautiflil polifli. and made into ornamental and ufcfu! picees
of furniture.
Befides thefe petrifaétions, there have been found ilrata,. of about fix inches thick, of
a hard fpedes of marl, which like^vife takes a fine pohih. This marl was filled with ihells,
tl.e grcatcft part of which were the cornua ammonis. I have preferved fome fpeeimens of
the marl and petrified trees, which have gi-eat analogy to the fragments fonnd in the valley
of St. Andrea.
There does not therefore remain a doubt but there was a time when the waters of the
fea covered the valley of St. Pons; and that the ifolated rock at Nice originally formed an
iiland : a fuppofition which muft appear perfedlly clear on examining the annexed plan of
Nice, and the drawing. No. 13, -which gives the fedlion or profile of the heights which
furround the town.
This city, which is now the capital of the county, was only a fmall town in the time of
the Romans, and was inhabited by a colony of Phocians from Marfeilles ; for as that city
had (according to Polybius) acquired fuch a degree of profperity and power in the time of
Tarqiiinius Prifcus, it fent forth colonics to be eflabliihed on the coaft of Liguria: and, as
that town, as well as the whole county of Nice, made a part of Gallia Cifalpina, it feems
probable that the Phocians, having defeated the Indmelli, and taken poffeffion of the country,
cftabliflied one of their colonies on the fpot where Nice nowflands, and gave itthename
of Nicoe, doubtlefs taken from the Greek Nu», fignifying Viftoria, on account of the important
viftories they had juft acquired. It was not however of any confequence till towards Û\e •
feventh century, after the entire deftruftion of Cimies, or Cemenelion, one of the principal
towns of theVedanti, a people who inhabited that part of Liguria; for that city having been
found by the Romans, after their conqucfl: of the Maritime Alps, both important and confi«
derable, they there eflabliihed one of theii' colonies, making it the metropolis of that part of
. tlie Alps, and the feat of a Roman pr®fes or prefident, who had an unlimited power over the
whole territory included between the rivers Nerva and the Var, the Alps and the fea, which
nearly takes in tlie whole of the prefent county of Nice, which is now bounded on the eaft by
the flates of Genoa, on the weft by Provence, on the north by Dauphiny and Piedmont, while
the Mediterranean fea wafhes its coaft on the fouth to an extent of about twelve miles in a
ftraight line. Its length from north to fouth maybe computed at fixty miles, and its breadth
thirty. This meafm-emcnt is as accurate as could be made, confidering the extreme diffi-.,
culty of afccrtaining any e x a a meafure in fo mountainous a country. The populadon of
the county is now eilimated at one hundred and twenty-five thoufand inliabitants.
The Romans built a number of beautiful monuments and public edifices at Cemenelion,
fome veftdges of which arc flill remaining, which indicate the fonner fplendour of that unfortunate
city. Amongft thofe which have efcapcd the ravages and devaflations brought
on fucceffively by the different incurfions of the Goths, Burgundians, Lombards, &c. is
an amphitheatre, which, though raudi lefs than the one at Nifmes, feems to have been
curious in its time. Tlie arena is extant; fcveral of the feats compofed of large blocks of
free-ftone, and the fragments of two oppofite porticos, which were doubtlefs the principal
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