and by the rubbish of buildings; the highest part, at the same time, projecting above the waters, and being consequently weathered, but not materially injured. (See fig. 90, p. 514.)
On the pavement of the temple lie some columns of marble, which are also perforated in certain parts; one, for example, to the length of eight feet, while, for the length of four feet, it is uninjured. Several of these broken columns are eaten into, not only on the exterior, but on the cross fracture, and, on some of them, other marine animals (serpulae, &c.) have fixed themselves.[719] All the granite pillars are untouched by lithodomi. The platform of the temple, which is not perfectly even, was, when I visited it in 1828, about one foot below high-water mark (for there are small tides in the bay of Naples); and the sea, which was only one hundred feet distant, soaked through the intervening soil. The upper part of the perforations, therefore, were at least twenty-three feet above high-water mark; and it is clear that the columns must have continued for a long time in an erect position, immersed in salt water, and then the submerged portion must have been upraised to the height of about twenty-three feet above the level of the sea.
By excavations carried on in 1828, below the marble pavement on which the columns stand, another costly pavement of mosaic was found, at the depth of about five feet below the upper one (a, b, fig. 90). The existence of these two pavements, at different levels, clearly implies some subsidence previously to the building of the more modern temple which had rendered it necessary to construct the new floor at a higher level.