:mm SAN FRUTTUOSO. 



for our son£;'sters, and protect them during the nesting 

 season b^- our laws, onh' that the Italian gourmand 

 ma\' use them to flavour his polenta ^ We must 

 frankh- admit that in the cultivated circles of Itah' more 

 and more voices are raised each year in favour of severer 

 measures for the preservation of wild birds. Maj' these 

 voices soon succeed in making themseh'es heard ! I have 

 noticed with great satisfaction that the number of 

 birds has increased in the Olive groves of San Remo 

 and Ospedaletti the last few years. The Municipalities 

 have restricted the ruthless shootijig in order to gain 

 the favour of the visitors. 



CHAPTER V. 



The hamlet of San Fruttuoso con'sists of only a few 

 houses crowded close together on the steep slope. On 

 a rock in their midst rises a a(|iiare watch tower now 

 used as a dwelling. Above the village the hill rises 

 steepl}-, clothed first with silver\' grey Olives, higher up 

 with dark evergreen Macjuis, and fringed on the sky- 

 line hv Umbrella Pines. On both sides of the ba^' the 

 rocks fall abrupth- into the sea as though to shut this 

 spot off from the rest of the world for ever. Only to 

 the south can the e\'e range over the blue sea and lose 

 itself in the distant sk\' which over-arches the high 

 mountains. Here could one indeed live in the present 

 day as an anchorite, "the world forgetting, by the world 

 forgot", and then be laid to rest beside the ancient 

 Dorias, — for in this lonely place the Dorias ol. Genoa 

 were buried in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 



