Chapter XXI.
Saponara to Spinosa, and the Entrance of the Valley of the Laderna.
Leaving Saponara, where there were no authorities but a few gendarmes to be found, one of whom I took on with me to Montemurro, which I proposed to reach late, (as a guide rather than a protection against marauding on the part of the starving people hereabouts,) I rode along the right bank of the Agri eastward, to near the junction with the Moglia, and then forded the former with some difficulty, owing to its swollen state; and after half a mile again forded the Aqua Fredda, or Frigida, which, coming down by the little vallone of the same name, from the heights of Monte dell' Agresto, and the Santo Spirito, falls into the Agri on its left bank. Looking back at Saponara, from 2 miles distant, to the east, and after crossing these rivers again at about 4 miles, I made the sketches (Nos. 255 and 256) of its appearance and relation to the hills around, and to the piano, &c. The afforested low hill in front, is the Bosco di Guardia Maura, and part of the Bosco dell' Aspro. The Agri, with deep and precipitous clay banks, flows between Saponara and the observer.
It is scarcely conceivable that Saponara will ever be rebuilt, the destruction is too absolute, to leave sufficient
