No. III. — Pausilipo arid the Lago d'Agnano. ^ZQ5 



by Carletti, a modern Italian writer on this region, who so 

 late as 1787 gave a marvellous account of their contents ; but 

 this would appear to be an absolute fiction. 



In its present condition, Astroni is a richly wooded hollow, 

 or (to use the only word which can express its form) crater, 

 which, particularly in winter when I visited it, from the abun- 

 dance of evergreens which clothe its precipices and chasms, 

 exhibits a scene of the most romantic seclusion. Its summit 

 is surrounded by a wall, which is rendered hardly necessary, 

 from the barrier with which nature has furnished it ; and it 

 forms a delightful royal hunting park. Strangers are most li- 

 berally admitted; and none should neglect the opportunity of 

 enjoying a tranquillity so unique within two or three miles of 

 such a city as Naples. Its thickets are abundantly stocked 

 with wild boar, — a noble animal of its kind, — which is extremely 

 active, and shuns the approach of man. They generally f^ed 

 in herds, and are the favourite objects of the royal chace in this 

 part of Italy. A single hunting cottage does not interrupt 

 the repose of this sequestered region ; and the painter might 

 find many delightful subjects for his pencil, in the combina- 

 tion of the fine foliage of majestic trees, the craggy eminences 

 of the rudely piled lava, and the little lakes already mentioned, 

 which serve to diversify the scene. It is interesting to reflect 

 that the delightful scenery of Astroni was once realized in the 

 now desolate crater of Vesuvius. Previous to 1631, for a con- 

 siderable period of years, that great chasm was wooded like 

 Astroni, and like it was stocked with wild boar, and had its 

 miniature lakes.* It is impossible to divine whether the qui- 

 escent spot now before us may not again be disembowelled by 

 volcanic ravages after a longer repose, but in a condition simi- 

 lar to the crater of Vesuvius. 



We have now surveyed in sufficient detail the region which 

 we proposed for our present consideration, and have made the 

 circuit of several ranges of hills, which are of great interest in 

 their constitution to the physical observer, and lead him, as I 

 have already observed, with great ease to several remarkable 

 conclusions. Some of these we endeavoured to draw, as con- 

 nected with the theory and origin of volcanos ; and when we 



See No. I. of these Notices in this Journal, October 1828, p. 194. 



