LIFE IN AX ISLAND. 91 



cathedral, its dismantled convent, and indefensible 

 gates, occupies the centre of the landscape. Sea- 

 ward, at both ends of the island, great precipices, 

 1800 feet or more of sheer ascent from the water, 

 rise up in perpendicular austerity, communicating 

 none of the secrets they hold in their bosom ; al- 

 though such secrets as the Blue Grotto, and the 

 scarcely less beautiful Passagio Yerde, might be 

 worth bragging of. Between these mighty ramparts, 

 looking towards Naples, appears the soft edge of the 

 Marina, Avith its fringe of boats, with olives and 

 orange-gardens opening upward to the white line of 

 the village, which lies like a thread along the ridge. 

 On the other side of the saddle, exactly opposite the 

 Marina Grande, the Piccola Marina, a smaller but 

 lovelier nook of accessible shore, defended by im- 

 mense corners of rock, and populated by a lesser 

 population of fishing-boats and fisher children, turns 

 its face towards Sicily, opening up, like the other, its 

 gardens and terraces towards the village. Thus the 

 Capriotes can contemplate the sea on either side of 

 them from their airy position. Of the hills which 

 fence them from the east and the west, the one to 

 which the stranger is first led is that called by the 

 peasants Tiberio, upon which the most articulate 

 relics of the terrible Emperor are to be found. These 

 consist chiefly of certain majestic rounded arches, like 

 those of the Temple of Yenus at Rome, which look 

 out from the masses of rubbish, gaunt and vacant, 



