132 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1786. 



answer that purpose. In its present state it is a most magnificent monument of 

 antiquity. 



The whole country from Arpino, the native place of Marius,* by Isola, Sora, 

 Civitella, and Capistrello, to the Lake of Celano, Sir W. thinks infinitely more 

 beautiful and picturesque than any spot he had seen on the Alps, in Savoy, 

 Switzerland, or the Tyrol. The road is not passable for carriages, and indeed 

 is scarcely so, even in summer, for horses or mules, and is often infested with 

 banditti ; a party of which, consisting of 11, had quartered themselves in a 

 village which he passed through, and left it but a week before his arrival. There 

 are many wolves and some bears in the adjacent mountains, which also commit 

 their depredations in the winter. The tyger-cat, gatto pardo, or lynx, is some- 

 times found in the woods of this part of Abruzzo. The road follows the wind- 

 ings of the Garigliano, which is here a beautiful clear trout stream, with a great 

 variety of cascades and water-falls, particularly a double one at Isola, near which 

 place Cicero had a villa, and there are still some remains of it, though converted 

 to a chapel. The valley is extensive, and rich with fruit trees, corn, vines, and 

 olives. Large tracts of land are here and there covered with woods of oak 

 and chestnut, all timber trees of the largest size. The mountains nearest the 

 valley rise gently, and are adorned with either modern castles, towns, and vil- 

 lages, or the ruins of ancient ones. The next range of mountains, rising 

 behind these, are covered with pines, larches, and such trees and shrubs as 

 usually abound in a like situation : and above them a third range of mountains 

 and rocks, being the most elevated part of the Appennine, rise much higher, 

 and, being covered with eternal snow, make a beautiful contrast with the rich 

 valley above-mentioned ; and the snow is at so great a distance, as not to give 

 that uncomfortable chill to the air, which is always found in the narrow vallies 

 of the Alps and the Tyrol. 



On the 15th of August last. Sir W. went in a felucca to the island of Ischia. 

 He had nothing to add to his former observations on this island, already com- 

 iT.unicated to the r. s. ; except that about 6o yards from the shore, at a place 

 called St. Angelo, situated between the towns of Ischia and Furia, a column 

 of boiling water bubbles on the surface of the sea with great force, and commu- 

 nicates its heat to the water of the sea near it ; but as the wind was very high, 

 and the surf considerable, he was not able then to examine this curious spot as 

 he could have wished. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood told him, that 



* Marius had a large villa , about twelve miles distant from Arpino. I went to visit the spot, on 

 which now stands the only convent of the austere order of La Trappe in Italy. It is in the Pope's 

 state, and has been evidently built of the ruins of Marius's house, and its present name is Casa 

 Mari. — Orig. , 



