Site of the Ancient City of the Aurunci. 219 



by beasts of burden accustomed to mountain paths, he may 

 often find himself all at once in a valley, exhibiting, instead of 

 the sombre and lonely aspect which in colder countries is cha- 

 racteristic of mountain scenery, a display of those softer and 

 lovelierfeatures,whichtheintenseheatof thesun soon banishes 

 elsewhere from the landscape of southern latitudes, and teem- 

 ing with a population, more healthy, more vigorous, and appa- 

 rently more thriving, than he had left in the plain below. 



Such is found to be the case in crossing the mountain 

 chain that separates Amalfi from the towns that lie scattered 

 along the Bay of Naples, after we have climbed up the flights 

 of rude steps, which often form the only medium of commu- 

 nication between the villages situated on the slope of the 

 hill, and the sea that flows at its base. 



And in like manner, Rocca Monfina, isolated as it may ap- 

 pear, and remote from any great thoroughfare, comprehends 

 within its precincts two or three populous villages, several 

 churches, and more than one convent ; whilst its surface, so 

 far from presenting the rugged aspect which volcanic rocks 

 usually assume, is so uniformly clothed with vegetation, and 

 in a state of such complete culture, that, but for the amphi- 

 theatre of hills which encloses the table-land on its summit, 

 the circular form of which betrays the origin of the moun- 

 tain of which it forms the outer margin, no one could for an 

 instant dream, from its general physiognomy, that the whole 

 was of igneous formation. 



And yet, when we look back to the accounts given by the 

 Roman writers of the state of Vesuvius, or rather of Monte 

 Somma, just before that mountain returned to a state of ac- 

 tivity in the second century of the Christian aera, we may see 

 reason to believe, that its condition must then have been 

 nearly similar to that of Rocca Monfina at present,* if we 

 only except the crater, which, not being composed of tufi^, 

 was entirely barren, even in the time of Strabo.f 



* See engravings in Plate II., p. 219, which repi-esent the supposed form of the 

 mountain in the time of Straho, and its appearance subsequently to the time of 

 Pliny. 



t See Martial IV., Ep. 44. Strabo, V. 24. 



