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of five minutes had attained to as great a height as could reasonably be expected, when he suddenly turned round and said, 'Here comes my brother, who is just as good a guide as myself. He will go with you, but I can't, as I am engaged to an English family.' Here was a dilemma! Could Could any thing make me more disgusted with human nature than thus to find il veritabile Gozzolino suddenly appear in his true character,-that he was only what the Spaniards term a bouli cougi, a veritable humbug, an unfigleafed delusion, a deceitful snare with all his tricks exposed to view, a guide-post with the direction gone, a monument with the virtuous epitaph erased? I told him I was now going on alone; I had agreed to pay him well, but was not going to take any of his castoff relatives as substitutes. Then arose a great clamour; but I started off resolutely, though followed by the secondhand Gozzolino, who obstinately refused to go back. At length I reflected that the result was rather uncertain, if I went guideless; and, after some bargaining, I agreed to give the man twelve carline if he saw me safe to the summit. This he finally consented to, with a look of despair, as if he felt like the fifth act and last scene of some soul-heaving tragedy. Turning round to the original Gozzolino, who yet lingered in the background, and throwing up his arms above his head, he thrice exclaimed, with a sort of helpless expression, 'Duodiece carline solamente (Only twelve carline!) Having relieved his mind in this way, he went doggedly on, and spoke not a word for at least half an hour.

M

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LACHRYMA CHRISTI.

"Our way led over the debris of past eruptions, of which we saw at first only faint traces in the form of lava cropping out here and there, or piled up in walls on either side of the path. The land around us, barren as it was, yet abounded in vineyards which spread out their vines to the sun as far up the sides of the mountain as their roots could find any foothold. They have matured their fruit under the vivid of an Italian summer,

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while their roots are warmed by the subterranean fires which still heat the lava that was poured forth years ago. Their grapes have a peculiar flavour, and their juice is known far and wide as lachryma Christi (‘the tears of Christ'). To us it appears almost blasphemous to apply so revered a name to a beverage which is associated far more with 'revel and ungodly glee' than any thing else. But there is in Italy a sad want of veneration for the name. They have no sympathy with that awful reverence which we feel for the heavenly character and benignant majesty of the Son of God. Among the Italians the Madonna intercepts all the divine virtues of Christ, whom they regard-if they ever think of Him at all-as merely an avenging Judge, who will come at the last to pass sentence on the wicked. He is thus rather an object of terror and dislike. His holy name passes the lips of an Italian with as little reflection as that of Jupiter, and it appears to him no more improper to apply it to a wine than to a church."

Proceeding to describe the ascent of the mount, the author from whom we quote says:

VIEW FROM THE VOLCANO.

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"The view from this part of the volcano is peculiarly impressive. Far above rise its precipices, black with tortuous masses of rough and craggy lava, while part-way down, and on the edge of former eruptions, is the observatory which modern science has established on this spot. It appears to diffuse the pure light of mind over the scene of majestic desolation around it. Before it are the long and intricate windings of former streams of lava, extending over the surface in every direction. The site seems a great battle-field of giant pythons, the blackened bodies of whose dead yet remain petrified upon it; whose wounded, covered with many a scaly fold, voluminous and vast,' and yet retaining every form of serpent agony, suddenly stiffened with the pangs of death; while, in many an attitude of fierce and writhing contortion, they coiled around the forms of prostrate enemies, or painfully struggled in the angry embraces and swollen muscles of those stronger than themselves, and the fiery shower and molten hail suddenly descended on them from above.

"Far below extended a prospect, whose beauty offered the strongest possible contrast to the sterile grandeur around me, and which almost seemed to justify the language of Chateaubriand, who said of it, It is paradise seen from the infernal regions.'

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"For a considerable distance before reaching the summit, the cone of Vesuvius is extremely steep, and the jagged blocks of lava, scattered confusedly up and

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ASCENT OF VESUVIUS.

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down, afford a very insecure footing. Moreover, these edges are exceedingly sharp, and the effect on wearing apparel is quite frightful. Rents of ruin,' long before I reached the top, made it very uncertain how much would remain when I got there. As I approached the base of the cone, sundry ill-favoured persons appeared, looking very 'lean and hungry.' I thought of Cassius, and said to myself, such men are dangerous.' They followed, for a short distance, to the most precipitous part of the ascent, when two of them went before and held out small rings of rope which they are accustomed to use in dragging visitors to the top. The rest were to push behind. . . . A few yards from the top the lava disappears under a deep bed of ashes, which extends around the edge of the crater. Its being soft and treacherous renders it quite dangerous to approach too near the rim, and on this occasion the great violence of the wind made it doubly unsafe. I was finally obliged to lie flat and draw myself towards it, or else run great danger of being blown into the gulf below.

"The bottom of the crater, which was not greatly agitated, was covered with a thick deposit of ashes, apparently several feet deep. Its perpendicular walls were about 500 feet high. They were almost smooth, though in many places yellow with sulphur, and displayed, here and there, a vertical rent, long and deep, filled with that substance. Clouds of steam, now dense and heavy, now faint and attenuated, rose and floated lazily to the edge of the pit, when the wind instantly whirled

THE VOLCANOES OF ICELAND.

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them away. At times the bed of ashes heaved and throbbed with deep pulsations, that showed the pent-up force within. Occasionally, low rumblings or groanings were heard, as if the volcano longed to relieve itself of the liquid fire that circled through its veins. But no stones were ejected, nor was any melted lava visible. Naught appeared but the profound indignation of imprisoned havoc, the forced calmness of chained ruin. So deep and precipitous were the sides of the crater, that it was impossible to go down into it; and so furious was the wind, that it was equally impossible to stand Therefore I prepared to depart.”

erect.

*

ICELAND.

THE volcanic history of Iceland is more perfect than that of any other region of volcanic activity in the globe, with the exception of Italy. We are in possession of records ofits successive convulsions from the ninth century to the present time. There is probably no portion of the earth where volcanic action has been so uninterruptedly exhibited, there never having been a longer interval than forty, and seldom more than twenty, years between the great earthquakes and eruptions; while powerful hot-springs, jets of sulphurous smoke, subterranean sounds and tremors of the earth, give constant evidence of the ceaseless activity of the fearful agents below. Many