KAGNIl I- I.N I PROSPECT. 



• don, and the smiling aspect of the cultured country be- 

 neath. They beheld the plants divided by zones, as the 



• aperature of the atmosphere diminished with the eleva- 

 tion of the Bit . B slow the Sugar-loaf; Lichens began to 



v. t the Boorious and lustrous lava : and viol. is rose on 

 tin- slope of the volcano al eight thousand five hundred 

 • of height Tufts of retama, loaded with Bowers, 

 adorned the valleys hollowed out by the torrents, and en- 

 tnbered with the effects of the lateral eruptiona Below 

 the retama, lay the region of ferns, bordered by the tract 

 of the arb at heaths. Forests of laurel, rhamnus, 



and arbutus, divided the ericas from the rising grounds 

 planted with vines and fruit trees. A rich carpet of 

 verdure extended from the plain of spartium, and the 

 zone of the alpine plants even to the groups of the date 

 tree and the musa, at the feet of which the ocean ap- 

 peared to roll. The seeming proximity, in which, from 

 the summit of the peak, they beheld the hamlets, the 

 vineyards, and the gardens on the coast, was increased 

 by the prodigious transparency of the atmosphere. In. 

 spite of the great distance, they could plainly distinguish 

 not only the houses, the sails of the vessels, and the 

 trunks of the trees, but they could discern the vivid 

 colouring of the vegetation of the plains. 



Notwithstanding the heat which they felt in their feet 

 011 the i of the crater, the cone of ashes remains 



■iv. 1 with snow during several months in winter. It 

 was probable that under the cap of snow considerable 

 hollows were found, like those existing under the gla- 

 re of Switzerland, the temperature of which was con- 

 ntly . levated than that of the soil on which they 

 reposed. The cold and violent wind, which blew from 



