or AMPSANCTI LACUS, a cave or lake in the heart of the Hirpinii, or Principato Ultra, near the city Tricentum (Cicero, Virgil, Pliny); it is now called Mofetta, from Mephitis, the goddess of stench, who had a temple there. The ancient poets imagined that this gulf led to hell. The Mofetta is thus described by Mr Swinburne: "We were led into a narrow valley, extending a considerable way to the south-west, and pressed in on both sides by high ridges thickly covered with copse of oak. The bottom of the dell is bare and arid; in the lowest part, and close under one of the hills, is an oval pond of muddy ash-coloured water, not above fifty feet in diameter; it boils up in several places with great force in irregular fits, which are always preceded by a hissing sound. The water was several times spouted up as high as our heads in a diagonal direction; a whirlpool being formed round the tube, like a basin, to receive it as it fell. A large body of vapour is continually thrown out with a loud rumbling noise. The stones on the rising ground that hangs over the pool are quite yellow, being stained with the fumes of sulphur and sal ammoniac. A most nauseous smell rising with the steam obliged us to watch the wind, and keep clear of it, to avoid suffocation. The water is quite insipid both as to taste and smell; the clay at the edge is white, and carried into Puglia to rub upon scabby sheep, on which account the lake is farmed out at 100 ducats a-year. On a hill above this lake stood formerly a temple dedicated to the goddess Mephitis: but I perceived no remains of it."