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Ch. XXVI.] 



DESOLxiTE ASPECT OF THE REGION. 



27 



motion, in tlie darkness of the niglit, one of those fiery 

 currents which have so often traversed the great valley, we 



may well recall 



yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, 



The seat of desolation, void of light. 



Save what the glimmering of these livid flames 



Casts pale and dreadful. 



The strips of green herbage and forest land, which have 

 here and there escaped the burning lavas, serve, by contrast, 

 to heighten the desolation of the scene. When first I visited 

 the valley, nine years after the eruption of 1819, I saw 

 hundreds of trees, or rather the white skeletons of trees, on 

 the borders of the black lava, the trunks and branches bein 





-i : I I 



View of the rocks Finocchio, Capra, and Musara, Val del Bove. 



all leafless^ and deprived of their bark by the scorching heat 

 emitted from the melted rock; an image recalling those 

 beautiful lines: — 



As when heaven's fire 

 Hath seath'd the forest oaks, or mountain pines, 

 With singed top their stately growth, though bare, , 

 Stands on the blasted heath. 



An unusual silence prevails throughout this region ; for 

 there are no torrents dashing from the rocks, nor anj move- 

 ment of running water in this valley, such as may almost 

 invariably be heard in mountainous regions. Every drop of 

 water that falls from the heavens, or flows from the meltino- 



