134 
LETTERS FROM 
river, and it is therefore a place where, sup¬ 
posing it to be a secure haven, any tempest- 
tost mariner would be glad to take refuge. 
Selmone may be about half-a-mile in length, 
and does not appear as an island till you 
have advanced some distance into the bay. 
On these rocks we remained some time, 
meditating on the beautiful narrative of 
the voyage, and thinking that, perhaps, 
covered by the boiling sea beneath our 
feet, there still existed some fragment of 
the ship, which eighteen hundred years 
ago was here “ broken with the violence 
of the waves.” We collected some pieces 
of the rock, which w'e preserved, both 
as memorials of the spot, and as specimens 
of Maltese stone for the cabinets of our 
mineralogical friends at home. On the hill, 
just above the point, we found some very 
pretty little blue flowers, which we had not seen 
