publicly exhibited three times a-year, in May, September, and December, on which occasions it melts in its vase; if the fusion take place quickly, the joy of the people is great; but if there be any unexpected delay, their tears, prayers, and cries are excessive, as the absence of the miracle is supposed to announce some dreadful impending calamity! The principal scientific and literary establishments are: The University; the lyceum del Salvatore; the school of paleography, attached to the general archives of the kingdom; the school of painting and sculpture; the establishment for unrolling and decyphering the MSS. found at Herculanæum; the military college; the military school; the marine academy; the veterinary school; the two great schools for girls, Maracoli and San Marcellino; the two colleges for music, that for males at San Pietro a Majolla, and that for girls at the Concordia; the royal poor's house, where 6000 children are taught arts and trades, at the cost of $100,000 a-year to the government; the chairs of clinical surgery, midwifery, opthalmologie, and surgery, attached to the public hospitals; the botanic garden; two observatories; the topographical board; four public libraries, among which is the Borbonica, one of the richest in Europe; the cabinets of mineralogy, natural history, physics, and chemistry; the royal museum of antiquities; the Borbonic academy, divided into the three branches of antiquities, sciences, and fine arts, to the support of which the king assigns an annual revenue of $120,000; the institute of encouragement; and the societies Pontaniana and Sebezia. The fortifications of the city are of little military importance: they consist of five forts or castles, the principal of which are-that of San Elmo, on a hill behind the city, which it completely commands; the Castello de!'Ovo, (egg or oval castle,) built on a rock in the sea, and the Castello Nuovo, (new castle,) which contains a triumphal arch, and several other curious objects. The harbor is artificial, being formed by a great mole, which is continually crowded with people, and contains a light-house and a fine well. In a hill, in the northern part of the city, are the catacombs, which served as burial places in the early ages of the church, and which are said to be more extensive than those of Rome and Syracuse. At the south-west corner of the city is the tuffa hill of Posilipo, through which the public road is carried by a gallery or tunnel, a mile in length; and at the east end of the gallery is Virgil's tomb.

PUZZUOLI, a small episcopal city, with 8000 inhabitants, stands on the coast, 6 miles W. of Naples, in a delightful situation, where were many villas of the ancient Romans. It contains the remains of an amphitheatre called the Colloseo, nearly as large as that of Rome, the ruins of a temple of the nymphs, and one of Serapis, which has given rise to some interesting speculations among geologists. In the neighborhood are several remarkable curiosities: the Lucrine Lake, the Lake of Avernus, the Lake of Fusaro, noted for its excellent oysters, the Dog's Grotto, the Lake of Agnano, the Solfataro, and the Monte Nuovo. On the west side of the bay, opposite to Puzzuoli, is BATA, a miserable place, almost deserted, but with a safe harbor, and remarkable in ancient times as the summer retreat of the Roman nobles, of whose villas, temples and tombs it contains numerous remains. To the north of Baia are the ruins of the ancient city of Cuma, and the Sibyl's Grotto, a tunnel which penetrates to a great depth, but is almost now choked up with rubbish; and to the south the promontory and harbor of MISENO, which was the station of the Roman fleet for the protection of the western part of the Mediterranean. PoRTICI, 4 miles S. E. of Naples, at the foot of Vesuvius, is a small town with a royal palace and 5000 inhabitants. Almost contiguous to Portici, is RESINA, a

large village with 9,000 inhabitants, on the site of Herculaneum, a Roman town, which was buried under a thick bed of gravel, at the terrible eruption of Vesuvius in A. D. 79, and first discovered in 1713. TORRE DEL ANNUNZIATO, a town with 9,000 inhabitants, on the coast, 12 miles S. E. of Naples, at the southern base of Vesuvio, is noted for its great manufacture of military arms, and for its vicinity to POMPEII, an ancient city, which was buried, like Herculaneum, in the year 79, and discovered in 1755. A considerable part of the ancient town has been cleared, exhibiting the remains of a forum, and of several fine temples and theatres, besides private houses, baths, and streets, which gives a perfect idea of a Roman city. There are several other towns round the base of Vesuvius, as Torre del Greco, on the sea shore, with 13,000 inhabitants; Somma, with 7,000; Ottajano, with 15,000; Santa Anastasi, with 6,000. The neighborhood of these towns produces the famous wine known by the name of Lacrima Christi (Christ's tears.) Castelamare, Vico, and Sorrento, are three towns on the south-east coast of the bay, opposite Naples. Castelamare is an episcopal city, with 15,000 inhabitants, built in a delightful situation, above the ruins of the ancient buried city of Stabiæ, from which several manuscripts, statues and paintings have been dug. Near it is Quisisana, a small town, with a fine summer palace of the king, and the principal building yard for the royal navy. SORRENTO is a small archiepiscopal city with 5,000 inhabitants, in a fine situation, noted for its excellent silk, and for its antiquities.

CASERTA, a small town with 5,000 inhabitants, occupies a fine situation, and has a magnificent royal palace, and an aqueduct across the valley of Maddaloni, composed of three ranges of arches. The water course, of which it forms a part, is 27 miles long, and is carried through Mont Garzano by a remarkable tunnel more than 3,000 feet long. Here is also the Colony of San Leucio, founded by King Ferdinand IV., which exhibits, on a small scale, a model of all that is necessary for the education of the people. GAETA is a strongly fortified episcopal city, with a harbor, one of the safest and best in Italy, and several remains of antiquity; the inhabitants amount to 14,000, besides the garrison. Pius IX. made this his city of refuge in 1848. CAPUA is a fortified archiepiscopal city, with a citadel considered one of the keys of the kingdom, on the Volturno, 18 miles N. of Naples. In its vicinity are the remains of the ancient capital of Campania, among which there is an amphitheatre.

SALERNO, an archiepiscopal and commercial city, with 11,000 inhabitants, is situated on the gulf to which it gives its name; it is noted for its ancient school of medicine, and contains a lyceum, and the palace of the Intendant, one of the finest of the provincial government residences in the kingdom. AMALFI, a small archiepiscopal city, on the rocky coast west of Salerno, with about 3,000 inhabitants, acted a distinguished part in the middle ages, by its numerous commercial navy, with which its citizens traded to all parts of the then known world. It was here that a copy of the Pandects was discovered in the 12th century, that the mariner's compass was invented, or at least perfected, and that the order of the Knights of St. John of Rhodes and Malta originated.

REGGIO, an archiepiscopal city, on the Straits of Messina, is the capital of Calabria Ultra I., with a civil and criminal tribunal, a royal college, and a considerable public library. It is considered the wealthiest provincial city of the continental part of the kingdom, for which it is indebted to the commercial activity of its citizens. Population, 17,000. GERACE is a small

episcopal city, with 3,000 inhabitants; in the vicinity of which are thermal springs, and the ruins of the ancient Locri. SCILLA, a small place representing the ancient Scylla, so noted for its danger to those sailing through the Strait of Messina.

At a very early period Naples was occupied by Greek colonists. It received from this circumstance the appellation of Magna Græcia. Soon after the war with Pyrrhus it was wholly subjugated by the Romans, and formed a most valuable portion of their empire. In modern times it has undergone inany vicissitudes. It was united to Spain in the early part of the 16th century, and continued, as an appanage of that kingdom, governed by viceroys, till by the treaty of Utrecht it was ceded to Austria. In 1734 it was erected into an independent monarchy, under Don Carlos, of Spain, who took the name of Charles III. It continued under the Bourbon dynasty until 1798, when it was overrun by the French, who held it until 1815, when the Bourbons were again restored.

These circumstances account, in part at least, for the degraded character of the Neapolitans. Down to the invasion of the French they had groaned under a succession of tyrannical or imbecile rulers; and with such a government, with the feudal system in full vigor, a servile and ignorant nobility, a priesthood always ready to protect and absolve every scoundrel who had money and power, it would have been a wonder had the people not become as worthless as corrupt, and as degraded as their rulers. Had the government of the French been continued for half a century, the regeneration of the country might have been effected. But Naples has again became the prey of dotage and imbecility, and until a new order of things shall be introduced, a vigorous government established, and the oppressive restrictions on foreign trade, and on the circulation of books and papers, have been abolished, it would be idle to expect any material improvement in the condition or character of the people. Perhaps, however, the events of 1848 may have enlightened the policy of his majesty, and shown him that he is powerless before an excited multitude. Indeed, it is not yet certain, that from the wickedness of his government, the king has not lost his dominion over the fine island of Sicily.

SICILY.

This lovely island is situated in the Mediterranean Sea, adjoining the south-western extremity of Italy, from which it is separated by the narrow Strait of Messina. Its greatest length is about 190 miles, and its greatest breadth about 106, the superficial area being 10,508 square miles.

The island is studded with mountains; the principal range of which extends in the direction of east and west, nearly parallel to the north coast, from the Strait of Messina to the western point, with a branch which starts off near the middle of the island, and stretches to the south-east, terminating at Cape Passaro. Among these mountains, and sometimes on their very tops, are plains of moderate extent, some of which are nearly 1000 feet above the level of the sea. The predominating rocks are the tertiary, secondary, and volcanic; the other formations being less abundant. Above these are marls and lime-stone, which are again overlaid by a conglomerate containing shells of species still existing in the Mediterranean, with a superincumbent deposit of bone breccia. Above these is a diluvial deposit, of which there are two kinds, the oldest occupying considerable heights, the newer covering the bottoms of the valleys. The tertiary rocks, so abundant in the island,

contain beds of common salt, sulphur, gypsum, alum, and beautifully crystallized sulphate of strontites. On the eastern coast, from a base of eighty miles in circumference, rises the gigantic volcanic cone of Mongibello (Ætna,) to the height of 10,870 feet. Etna has been an active volcano since the dawn of history; and its huge mass seems to be entirely composed of volcanic matter. Its base exhibits all the fruit trees peculiar to the transition zone, rich corn fields intermixed with vineyards and olive groves and orange trees, producing altogether a variety of foliage, such, perhaps, as cannot be seen in any other part of Europe. Higher up is the forest region, containing the oak, the beech, the ash, horse chesnuts in the greatest abundance, and plum trees; and still higher are woods of birch, which are scanty on the southern side but very numerous on the north. Beyond the birches every thing green disappears, and the only shrub is the bivona. Above all these is the region of bare lava and snow, in the midst of which the sulphur cone rises with a very steep ascent to the full height of Vesuvius, or about 3,000 feet. The top of the crater is above two miles in circumference, and, when quiescent, several hundred feet deep, pouring forth sulphureous vapor from thousands of small openings. The only perpetual snow, however, occurs in shaded crevices, above the height of 9,000 feet. Sicily is not rich in metals; the mountains to the north-west of Taormina present traces of a gold mine said to have been worked at a very remote period; mines of silver, copper, lead, and iron are also mentioned. Beds of sulphur occur abundantly in the blue tertiary clay, from which Europe has long been supplied with that mineral. The blue clay also contains beds of rock salt.

The climate of Sicily is very much the same as that of Calabria; its summers are very hot, while, on the contrary, frost is scarcely known in winter. The natural vegetable productions, and the objects of agricultural industry, are likewise nearly the same. The wheat of Sicily is reckoned the finest in Europe; the vine is also extensively cultivated, and produces in some places excellent wine. The sugar cane, the custard apple, and the date, are cultivated; and the enclosures are surrounded by the American aloe, which forms an impenetrable fence. By the side of the plane, the poplar, and the willow, grow the cactus tuna, or prickly fig, the orange, the citron, the olive, the myrtle, the laurel, the carob tree, and the pomegranate; while arbutus and tamarisk abound upon the coast. Sicily was in ancient times the granary of Rome, and still possesses the same fertile soil, and the same capability of abundant productiveness; but the system of rural and political economy in the island is such, that it sometimes does not produce corn sufficient for the consumption of its own inhabitants.

Wild animals are very scarce, and even sheep are almost unknown; hares and rabbits are now almost the only native quadrupeds to be met with; but, to compensate this deficiency, there are vast flocks of water-fowl in the marshes. The African flamingo is not uncommon in the marshes of Syracuse, and the pelican is also an occasional visitor. The purple heron, the night heron, the little bittern, the long-legged plover, the glossy ibis, the pratincole, and several other rare European specics, are also among the common migratory visitors. Insects are numerous; and flights of locusts have occasionally afflicted the island. The most destructive invasion of these insects appears to have happened in the beginning of last century, when they spread devastation and ruin over the island during a period of five years.

The Sicilians partake of the general character of their Neapolitan neigh

bors, profess the same religion, with the concomitant characteristics of ignorance and superstition, and are subject to the same ruling power. The despotic character of the government, together with the exorbitant feudal privileges of the grandees, have reduced the body of the people to the lowest state of penury; while the want of roads, or the badness of those that exist, prevents much internal communication or trade. Sicily, however, produces some wines that are esteemed by foreigners; the raw silk of the island is also fine; and these articles, with olive oil, fruits, sulphur, and salt, afford materials for exportation. In return she receives manufactured goods in great variety, though in small quantities, on account of the prevailing poverty of the people, who cannot afford to purchase anything beyond the coarsest articles of furniture and clothing.

Primary and secondary schools figure in every commune; colleges and academies are established in twenty-one towns, and in the two universities of Palermo and Catania, are 81 professors, and about 1,250 students. There are, besides Jesuit schools, three episcopal academies for divinity students, and boarding schools at Palermo for the gentry. Females belonging to families of distinction are educated in convents; but with all these means, the people, from the highest to the lowest, are, with few exceptions, remarkably ignorant. The island contains three archbishops and ten bishops, with priests in every commune. The church is chiefly maintained by revenues from landed estates; but the priests are paid by the communes. There are 660 monasteries, belonging to twenty-one or twenty-two orders; and the number of monks has been stated to amount to from 12,000 to 15,000.

Agriculture, pasturage, fisheries, the sulphur mines, and a few manufactures, form the principal occupations of the people. The lands chiefly belong to the nobility; but, as estates are now divided by law among the children, instead of going, as formerly, to the eldest son, the princely incomes once enjoyed by some of the nobles have dwindled away to a third or a fourth; and, in the course of time, their estates will be frittered down to very small possessions. Owing to the oppressive amount of the land-tax, many fertile tracts remain uncultivated. Sicily is the only European country where we find numerous modern ruins, consisting of whole towns, which have ceased to be inhabited within the last century. Over the whole island the art and implements of agriculture, and the dwellings of the people, are in the most wretched condition. Indeed, were it not for the fruit of the Indian fig, which grows wild and in abundance, the agricultural produce of Sicily, once the granary of Rome, would not probably maintain two-thirds of its diminished population. It produces, however, good crops of wheat, barley, beans, tobacco, cotton, hemp, flax, &c., with scarcely more culture than scratching the surface of the ground to admit the seed. With few exceptions, the horses, mules and asses are small and ill made; the Tunisian or reddish brown breed of cattle are large, strong, finely formed, and have generally long horns; the native or black breed are much smaller. There are many large and fine flocks of merino sheep; but the native breed is small and yields coarse wool. The goats are a tolerably good breed, and their hair is made into cloth. The swine are of a very inferior description. With the exception of the vine, a great deterioration appears to have taken place in the cultivation of fruit; the best olive trees are those which were planted many centuries ago by the Saracens. The oranges and citrons are delicious, and are collected with more than usual care. The forests have nearly disappeared; the woody