small scale, generally of one, sometimes of two stories: the principal apartments are always behind, inclosing a court, with a small piazza around it, and a marble cistern in the middle. The part of Pompeii that has been cleared comprises about 500 feet of the town wall, which is from 18 to 20 feet high, and 12 thick. On the whole, Pompeii bears, in several respects, a strong resemblance to modern Italian towns.

PESTUM.

Pæstum, called by the Greeks Posidonia, an ancient city of Lucania, has long been celebrated for its ruins. Obscurity hangs over, not only the origin, but the general history of this city, though it has left such magnificent monuments of its existence. Its origin, however, is referred to remote antiquity. The walls remain in their entire circumference, from 5 to 12 feet high, formed of solid blocks of stone, with towers at intervals; nearly four miles in circuit. The most remarkable remains are three edifices of the Doric style, standing in a line, and bordering a street which ran from gate to gate. The first temple that presents itself to the traveller from Naples, is the smallest, consisting of six pillars at each end, and 13 on each side. The second temple has six columns at each end, and 14 on each side. The third edifice is the largest, having nine pillars at each end, and 18 on each side. Within the walls, which once encircled a splendid and populous city, are only two farm houses, a cottage, a villa, and a church.

"These wonderful objects," says Mr. Forsyth, "though surveyed in the midst of rain, amply compensated our little misadventures. Taking into view their immemorial antiquity, their astonishing preservation, their grandeur, their columnar elevation, at once massive and open, their severe simplicity of design, that simplicity in which art generally begins, and to which, after a thousand revolutions of ornament, it again returns; taking, I say, all into one view, I do not hesitate to call these the most impres sive monuments that I ever beheld on earth.”

PALERMO.

Palermo, the capital of the island of Sicily, contains about 130,000 inhabitants. It is situated in a beautiful plain, presenting the appearance of a magnificent garden, filled with fruit trees, and watered by rivulets. The city, when approached by sea, presents a most enchanting prospect. Nor is this favourable impression effaced on first entering the town: the two principal streets are spacious, handsome, and bordered with elegant buildings; the churches are magnificent; the houses in general have something striking in their architecture, with fountains, statues, and busts in front of them; but a more close inspection soon lessens our admiration, the architecture being too uniform, and frequently heavy.

Palermo is the residence of a viceroy, and contains a royal palace, which is a vast pile of building, and it has also a university. A stranger, on entering the city, is struck with the amazing crowd of people seen in the streets; yet the trade is not very great. Beggars are numerous. Poverty is common to all ranks, there being many persons dignified with titles, who have no means of supporting their rank, and are prevented by family pride from engaging in commerce.

MESSINA.

Messina, situated in the northeast part of Sicily on the straits of Messina, contains about 80,000 inhabitants. The harbour is the best in Sicily, having from 20 to 40 fathoms of water close to the quays, and its situation is esteemed superior to any other in the Mediterranean. The straits are celebrated on account of containing, in their precincts, Scylla and Charybdis.

Messina is the second town in Sicily, and has an extensive commerce. The exports consist of wine, fruits, silk, and other products of the island. The city is narrow, high grounds rising immediately behind it. It makes a remarkably fine appearance when seen from a vessel at the distance of a mile, the whiteness of the houses forming a beautiful contrast with the deep green of the forests behind,

CATANIA.

Catania, on the east coast of Sicily, contains about 50,000 inhabitants. It is delightfully situated, close to the shore, at the foot of Mount Etna. Although destroyed three times by the lava of the volcano, it appears to have always risen more splendidly from its ashes, and it has a title to rank among the elegant cities of Europe. The principal streets are regular, spacious, and well paved with lava, and the houses are built of the same material. Most of the public edifices possess an air of magnificence unknown in other parts of the island; and the inhabitants are more remarkable for politeness and hospitality than the rest of the Sicilians.

SYRACUSE.

Syracuse, situated in the southeast part of Sicily, is greatly reduced from its former size and grandeur, and contains only 15,000 inhabitants. It was anciently the largest and most wealthy city in Sicily, and superior in population to Athens, or any other Grecian city. It is more celebrated in history than any other town in the island, and is noted for the exploits of Archimedes, by whose genius it was defended nearly three years, when besieged by the Romans. It was of triangular form, 22 miles in circuit, consisting of four parts, only one of which is now inhabited.

Remains of the ancient theatre are still seen. It is a wonderful object, above 300 feet in length, and 200 in breadth; the arena, seats, and passages, were cut out of the solid rock. The catacombs still exist, and form a remarkable feature of the place. They are only seven or eight feet high, but their extent is such that they form a kind of subterranean city, with a number of narrow streets, some of which are said to be a mile in length. The speaking grotto, or, as it was called by the ancients, the Ear of Dionysius, is a cave 170 feet long, 60 high, and from 20 to 35 wide, with so strong an echo that the slightest noise is overhead in the small chamber near the entrance, in which the tyrant Dionysius is said to have listened to the conversation of his prisoners. The famous fountain of Arethusa, still a striking object from its dis

charge of water, can no longer boast of ornaments, but is now the resort of the laundresses of the place.

Colossal Figure of Jupiter Pluvius, or Statue of Father Apennine, at Pratolino.

See Plate, No. 57.

The space in which stands this enormous statue, is planted round, on all sides, with lofty fir and beech trees, the trunks of which are hid by a wood of laurel, wherein niches have been cut for statues. The middle part is a green lawn, and at a little distance is a semicircular basin of water, behind which rises the colossal statue of Father Apennine.

Encased, as it were, in the groves, it can only be surveyed in front, and from a point of view marked by the artist, in the adjoining engraving.

Elevated on a base to appearance irregular, and of itself lofty, at which the astonished spectator arrives through two balustrades that run round the basin, this Colossus, at first, looks like a pyramidal rock, on which the hand of man might have executed some project analogous to what the statuary Stasicrates had conceived respecting Mount Athos, and which Alexander rejected. But soon

he recognizes the genius of a pupil and worthy rival of Michael Angelo.

It was, in fact, John of Bologna, who, by an inspiration derived from the ancients, has executed their beau ideal of Jupiter Pluvius. This name seems more suitable to the figure than that of Father Apennine, which has been assigned to it. The style, in point of magnitude, is of the largest, and the character of the head is in perfect conformity to the subject. His brows and front brave the tempest, and seem the region of the hoar frost; his locks descend in icicles on his broad shoulders, and the flakes of his immense beard resemble stalactites; his limbs seem covered with rime, but with no alteration in their contour, or in the form of the muscles.

To add to the extraordinary effect, about the head is a kind of a crown, formed of little jets d'eaux, that drop on the shoulders and trickle down the figure, shedding a sort of supernatural lustre, when irradiated by the sun.

It would be difficult to imagine a composition more pic