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The success of the Lake Celano tunnel has suggested other like improvements in Italy. A gallery has been cut, under circumstances of great difficulty, to drain Lake Agnano near Naples, and a project for the execution of a similar operation on the Lake of Perugia, the ancient Trasimenus, which covers more than 40,000 acres, is under discussion.

If it contain any saline substances, for example, the sulphates of soda or magnesia, their quantities must be very insignificant. In Italy, the Pisciarelli of the lake Agnano have a temperature equal to 93 degrees. It cannot proceed from the decomposition of sulphurets of iron, or pyritic strata.

Of these, the Lakes of Vico and Agnano are the most interesting. The former is the ancient Lacus Cimini, and old authors state that its site was once occupied by a town, whose ruins used to be visible at the bottom of the lake when the water was clear. The ground, with the town upon it, is said to have been ingulfed during a volcanic convulsion, when the lake was formed in its place.

Virgil follows in his steps. Another lake of similar origin is Lake Agnano. Here also is the Grotto del Cane, a cavern from which are constantly issuing volumes of carbonic acid gas combined with much aqueous vapour, which is condensed by the coldness of the external air, thus proving the high temperature of the ground from which the gaseous vapour issues.

Nero's Baths, the ruins of Baiae, the Temple of Serapis; Cumae, where the Cumaen Sybil interpreted the oracles, the Lake Agnano, with its ancient submerged city still visible far down in its depths these and a hundred other points of interest we examined with critical imbecility, but the Grotto of the Dog claimed our chief attention, because we had heard and read so much about it.

The Captain soon saw this, by noticing with what difficulty Diana was panting. She even appeared to be smothering, for the carbonic acid as in the famous Grotto del Cane on the banks of Lake Agnano, near Naples was collecting like water on the floor of the Projectile, on account of its great specific gravity.

Nero's Baths, the ruins of Baiae, the Temple of Serapis; Cumae, where the Cumaen Sybil interpreted the oracles, the Lake Agnano, with its ancient submerged city still visible far down in its depths these and a hundred other points of interest we examined with critical imbecility, but the Grotto of the Dog claimed our chief attention, because we had heard and read so much about it.

For the second dilution it would take 10;000 drops, or about a pint. For the third dilution it would take 100 pints. For the fourth dilution it would take 10,000 pints, or more than 1,000 gallons, and so on to the ninth dilution, which would take ten billion gallons, which he computed would fill the basin of Lake Agnano, a body of water two miles in circumference.

For the second dilution it would take 10;000 drops, or about a pint. For the third dilution it would take 100 pints. For the fourth dilution it would take 10,000 pints, or more than 1,000 gallons, and so on to the ninth dilution, which would take ten billion gallons, which he computed would fill the basin of Lake Agnano, a body of water two miles in circumference.

The Lake Agnano is the site of an ancient volcanic crater, and on its margin is situated the Grotto del Cane, so famous for the deadly vapours it exhales. These consist of carbonic acid gas, in combination with watery vapour. This celebrated Grotto is thus described, in his work on volcanoes, by Dr. Daubeny, who visited the spot: