244 Notice of the Grotto del Cane. 



and his family. Several changes had taken place since my last visit, 

 indicative of increasing violence in the volcano. The guide came 

 on board yesterday with information that on the evening after our 

 visit, six streams of lava had burst out from the spot in the crater 

 where we had taken our breakfast. It has not yet overflowed, and 

 will discharge itself down the other side of the mountain. I have 

 some thoughts of going up this evening to see it. We sail to-mor- 

 row — the Concord, with our letters, is to leave this to-day. 



Grotto del Cane. 



I believe I did not tell you, in my last, that I made a visit to the 

 famous Grotto del Cane, a visit to me so full of interest, that I can- 

 not help giving you some account of it, notwithstanding the numerous 

 descriptions we already have of that singular place. I was enticed 

 onward, one bright morning, by the numberless curious objects that 

 present themselves about Naples, till I found myself at the entrance 

 of the Grotto of Posilipo, then at its further extremity, then in the 

 beautiful valley beyond ; and being now not far from the Grotto del 

 Cane, set out in earnest for a treat that 1 had, from the first, been 

 promising myself. A guide was quickly selected from a set of rag- 

 ged urchins, who offered themselves along the road. Thus escort- 

 ed, I soon reached the house of the Custode, or show-man, and a 

 rapid knock and short dialogue having settled the preliminaries, I 

 pushed on towards the Grotto, leaving him to hunt up his dog and 

 follow at his leisure. The road, which had hitherto obliquely cross- 

 ed the valley noticed above, now approached its edge, and led us 

 among rough, abrupt hills, until suddenly turning to the right, and 

 entering a deep, natural chasm, it brought us in a few minutes to the 

 edge of the Lago d'Agnaro. This lake is about four miles in circuit, 

 and evidently occupies the crater of an extinct volcano. My little 

 Cicerone led me along the border of the lake, for about a hundred 

 yards, when pointing to a small door against the side of the crater, a 

 short distance above us, he told me that there was the object of my 

 search. The name Grotto had misled me, and my disappointment 

 was great, when, on the door being unlocked and thrown open, an 

 excavation, of not more than twelve feet in length, and seven or eight 

 in height, made its appearance. To the right, it was the rudest 

 thing possible. The bottom, sides, and top, were of the bare earth, 

 very uneven, and, as the cave was shaped much like an egg, it was 



