Prof. Hausmann's Sketches of South European Nature. 335 



dress, showing their comfortable circumstances, as well as the 

 clean appearance of their flat-roofed dwellings, are all in unison. 

 With so much the greater melancholy should we be again im- 

 pressed, when we found ourselves transported out of those beau- 

 tiful fields into the brown wilderness of the Campagna di Roma, 

 and the greater part of the tracts of country from thence to the 

 borders of Tuscany, near Radicofani ; or into the Pontine 

 Marshes, or the marshes of the low coast of Paestum. Equally 

 sad would be our feelings, in travelling through the districts of 

 the NeapoHtan States, and those of the Church, where the ill- 

 cultivated soil affords a scanty subsistence to the plundering 

 rabble, that, wretched in filth, inhabits the fallen cities. The 

 aqueducts excite our wonder, and numberless other architectu- 

 ral remains of the Campagna attest the neighbourhood and the 

 former "reatness of Rome. These address themselves to the wan- 

 dercr, as the temples of the blooming Possidonia, existing during 

 thousands of years, still remain to inspire astonishment and en- 

 thusiasm. On this soil, originally blessed by Nature, but now 

 neglected by men, there once lived a numerous and thriving 

 population. Such seem to be the words addressed to us. It 

 may appear a riddle difficult of explanation, why the same soil, 

 which, in other parts of Italy, bears the richest fruits, should, 

 in the above districts, make us look back with regret on ancient 

 times. But the reasons of that decay are not remote from ob- 

 servation. Italy instructs us, by the strongest contrasts, that 

 the welfare of countries is not dependent upon nature alone, but 

 in a still higher degree upon wise institutions, directing and 

 protecting the activity of the inhabitants. 



Meteorological Observations made on the summit of the Faul- 

 hom in Switzerland. By Professor L. F. Kamtz *. 



1 HE Faulhorn is a rather isolated mountain in the Bernese 

 Oberland, between the Valley of Grindclwald and the Lake of 

 Brientz. From its summit we enjoy an admirable view of the 

 Swiss glaciers, of the lakes, and surrounding country. The 



• Mr Kamtz is author of a valuable System of Meteorology, now in the 

 course of publication. 



