394 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



alighted. Sailing along the Mediterranean, your 

 vefTel is toffed by the violence of the tempeft, and 

 fhipwrecked upon* a rock, juft as it is beginning 

 to grow dark. Through the favour of Heaven, 

 you fcrambie fafe to land : you flee for fhelter to 

 a grotto, rendered vifible by the glare of the light- 

 ning, at the bottom of a little valley. There, re- 

 tired to the covert of this afylum, you hear, all 

 night long, the thunder roaring, and the rain de- 

 scending in torrents. At day-break, you difcover 

 behind you an amphitheatre of enormous rocks, 

 perpendicularly fteep as a wall. From their bafes, 

 here and there, ftart out clumps of fig-trees, co- 

 vered over with white and purple fruit, and tufts 

 of carobs loaded with brown pods; their fummits 

 are crowned with pines, wild olive-trees, and cy- 

 prefles bending under the violence of the winds. 

 The echos of thefe rocks repeat, in the air, the 

 confufeJ howling of the tempeft, and the hoarfe 

 noife of the raging Sea, perceptible to the eye at a 

 diflance. But the little valley where you are, is 

 the abode of tranquillity and repofe. In it's mofly 

 declivities the fea-lark builds her neft, and on 

 thefe folitary ftrands the mavis expects the ceafmg 

 of the ftorm. 



By this time the firft fires of Aurora are length- 

 ening over the flowery ftachys, and the violet beds 

 of thyme which clothe the fwelling hillocks. The 



brightening 



