138 BROWN : 



to wait for morning to reveal the sight of Capri — the Siren 

 Rocks, Sorrento, Vesuvius, with Herculaneum and Pompeii 

 at its foot — the hills to the northward and eastward, crowned 

 with St. Elmo and all fringed with white Naples, and so 

 around to Cape Misenum and tall Ischia in the order named. 



Now, I have set out this common place stuff, not as you 

 may well suppose, for the sake of being witty, but in order to 

 have something by which to remember the exceedingly useful 

 little fact with which I began a moment ago ; namely, that 

 the degree of longitude on parallel 40 is to the degree of lon- 

 gitude on the equator as 766 is to 1000 ; or, more simply, and 

 quite near enough for all practical purposes, the degree of 

 longitude at forty is in actual length four-fifths of what it is 

 at the equator. 



Just as a man ties a great, big, blundering, lumbering tag 

 to his little key, lest he lose it. 



Naples accordingly bears, nearly enough, due east from 

 where we are, distant in round numbers 4700 miles. 



But it will not do to imagine any such climate as there 

 is here. 



The isothermals do not follow the parallels at all. 



The place and neighborhood are warmed by the sea round 

 about it ; and the sea in turn tempers and moistens the hot 

 blasts that blow from the Great Sahara — not so ver>' far 

 away. And well for the Neapolitans ; for the scirocco, or 

 southwest wind that blows directly in between Sardinia and 

 Sicily, though it has 400 miles of water to cross, brings down 

 the average of briskness and vigor among that noisy cityful 

 in a way that is instantly noticeable. And even if there be 

 any so strong as to resist, these have but to look at the west 

 end of Capri to know how the wind is ; for the scirocco causes 

 a mirage which tilts that island up so that men can see under 

 its seaward extremity. 



I have seen the cone of Vesuvius, 4000 feet or so, covered 

 with plenteous snow, but do not remember ever to have seen 

 snow in the streets of the city — though at times the cold 



