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these, and the vineyards on either side of them, and emerge
upon a bleak bare region where the lava lies confusedly, in
enormous rusty masses: as if the earth had been ploughed
up by burning thunderbolts. And now, we halt to see the
sun set. The change that falls upon the dreary region,
and on the whole mountain, as its red light fades, and
the night comes on - and the unutterable solemnity and
dreariness that reign around, who that has witnessed it,
can ever forget!

It is dark, when after winding, for some time, over
the broken ground, we arrive at the foot of the cone:
which is extremely steep, and seems to rise, almost per-
pendicularly, from the spot where we dismount. The only
light is reflected from the snow, deep, hard, and white,
with which the cone is covered. It is now intensely cold,
and the air is piercing. The thirty-one have brought no
torches, knowing that the moon will rise before we reach
the top. Two of the litters are devoted to the two la-
dies; the third, to a rather heavy gentleman from Naples,
whose hospitality and good-nature have attached him to
the expedition, and determined him to assist in doing the
honours of the mountain. The rather heavy gentleman is
carried by fifteen men; each of the ladies by half a dozen.
We who walk, make the best use of our staves; and so
the whole party begin to labour upward over the snow,
- as if they were toiling to the summit of an antediluvian
Twelfth-cake.

We are a long time toiling up; and the head guide
looks oddly about him when one of the company - not

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