Page:Phosphor (1888).djvu/28

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PHOSPHOR.

Cool breezes from the sea make the hottest season delightful.

Its beautiful hills and vales, rugged rocks, barren mountains, and fruitful plains are interspersed one with the other in the most romantic confusion.

Bishop Berkely in a letter to Pope in 1717, says,—"The island Inarimi is an epitome of the whole earth contained in a compass of eighteen miles."

Wheat and Indian corn are grown in the vales, but fruit trees cover most part of the cultivated land. Apricots, peaches, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, figs, water melons, and numerous other fruits flourish amazingly.

Vines and chestnut groves covet some of the hills; others are covered with myrtle, and other natural growths.

Mons Epomeus is the principal feature in the landscape. Near the bottom it is covered with vines; higher up, it affords pastures for flocks of sheep and goats.

On the top, its pointed sandy neck gives one of the finest prospects in the world.

From it, on a clear day, you behold a tract of about 300 miles of Italy, from the Promontory of Antium to the Cape of Palenmus.

This was the delightful spot in which I proposed