CATARACTS AND INUNDATIONS. 51 



and oblong. The four walls were yet standing, and part of the 

 roof: this was vaulted, and lined with painted stucco. The altar 

 also remained, in an arched recess of the eastern extremity : upon 

 the north side of it was a small and low niche, containing a marble 

 table. In the arched recess was also a very antient painting of the 

 Virgin; and below, upon her left hand, the whole length portrak of 

 a Saint, holding an open volume. The heads of these figures were 

 encircled by a line of Glory. Upon the right hand side of the Vir- 

 gin there had been a similar painting of some other Saint, but part 

 of the stucco, whereon it was painted, no longer remained. The 

 word IIAP0ENON, written among other indistinct characters, 

 appeared upon the wall. The dimensions of this building were 

 only sixteen feet by eight. Its height was not quite twelve feet, 

 from the floor to the beginning of the vaulted roof. Two small win- 

 dows commanded a view of the river, and a third was placed near 

 the altar. Its walls, only two feet four inches in thickness, afforded, 

 nevertheless, space for the roots of two very large fir trees ; these 

 were actually growing upon them. All along the banks of this 

 river, as we advanced towards its source, we noticed appearances of 

 similar ruins; and in some places, among rocks, or by the sides of 

 precipices, were seen remains of several habitations together; as if 

 the monks, who retreated hither, had possessed considerable settle- 

 ments in the solitudes of the mountain. Our ascent, as we drew 

 near to the source of the rivor, became steep and stony. Lofty 

 summits towered above us, in the greatest style of Alpine gran- 

 deur ; the torrent, in its rugged bed below, all the while foaming 

 upon our left. Presently we entered one of the sublimest natural 

 amphitheatres the eye ever beheld ; and here the guides desired us 

 to alight. The noise of waters silenced every other sound. Huge 

 craggy rocks rose perpendicularly, to an immense height; whose 

 sides and fissures, to the very clouds, concealing their tops, were 

 covered with pines; growing in every possihle direction, among a 

 variety of evergreen shrubs, wild sage, hanging ivy, moss, and 

 creeping herbage. Enormous plane-trees waved their vast branches 

 above the torrent. As we approached its deep gulph, we beheld 

 several cascades, all of foam, pouring impetuously from chasms in 

 the- naked face of a perpendicular rock. It is said the same magni. 

 ficent cataract continues during all seasons of the year, wholly un. 

 affected by the casualties of rain or melting snow. That a river so 



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