212 

 EXTENSIVE VIEW. 



OUR radius of vision extends along the earth's surface, to a dis- 

 tance proportional to the square root of our elevation above the sea 

 level ; and objects are distinctly seen in proportion to the transparen- 

 cy of the atmosphere ; however, it is not from the highest stations 

 that the most beautiful and extensive views are obtained. A spec- 

 tator on the summit of TEtna, Teneriffe, or Pico, looks down on a 

 carpet of clouds and condensed vapours ; whereas, from mountain 

 summits of moderate elevation, his eye may range to the farthest 

 verge of the horizon, through a transparent atmosphere, and revel in 

 the beauties of nature displayed on the earth beneath. 



Of this kind is Mount St. Angelo, in the N. E. corner of the Bay 

 of Naples. Its rocky summit is 4,280 feet above the level of the 

 Bay, and 500 feet higher than the crater of Mount Vesuvius ; a 

 little, white, uninhabited hermitage is perched on the highest point, 

 from which a spectator enjoys one of the most extensive, pleasing, 

 and classical views imaginable. Let him rise with the dawn, ascend 

 the mountain by the path leading from Castell a mare, and reach the 

 summit if possible by nine o'clock, just as the land wind dies away, 

 and before the sea breeze brings its load of vapours to obscure his 

 view. Let him look seaward, and behold the island of Ischia float- 

 ing on the waters, with its towering but extinguished volcano, its 

 vine clothed sides and party coloured cliffs : on the right lies the 

 lowty isle of Procida, close to the lofty Cape Misenum, where the 

 pious /Eneas buried Hector's unfortunate trumpeter : near this place 

 may be seen a few straggling but white cottages, among broken 

 arches, ruined aqueducts, and crumbling tombs, extending around 

 an inlet of the bay, now known by the cognomen ofMareMorto; 

 formerly a famous Roman naval station, and adjacent to the Elysian 

 Fields, of Virgil. A little farther on rise the ruins of Baix, " beet- 

 ling o'er the Bay," with the old castle, ruined temples, baths, and 

 crumbling cliffs : then comes the Lucrine lake, shaded by hills of 

 the richest verdure, and the Avernus, whose internal hemispherical 

 sides are adorned with natural and artificial beauty, from the lips of 

 the ancient crater down to the transparent waters of the lake, now 

 well stocked with fish and fowl. A little farther to the right, rises 

 Monti Novo, and the higher hills which of yore produced the famous 

 Falernian wine; with, here and there, the deep crater of an extin- 

 guished Volcano, now filled with luxuriant vegetation ; then behold 

 the town of Pozzoli, with part of the ruins of Caligula's bridge running 

 into the sea, and behind it the Soltafara, with its white sides and sul- 



