necessary to complete its charm, and to remind us that the vain dreams
of those blind old seekers after God were all fulfilled in Him who
opened a door for us in heaven, and brought life and immortality to
light in the Gospel.

St. Paul must have noticed--though Scripture, intent only upon the
unfolding of the religious drama, makes no reference to it--the crater
of Solfatara, one of the most wonderful phenomena of this wonderful
region, for it lay directly in his path, and was only about a mile
distant from Puteoli. This was the famous Forum of Vulcan, where the
god fashioned his terrible tools, and shook the earth with the fierce
fires of his forge. On account of its gaseous fumaroles, and the
flames thrown out with a loud roaring noise from one gloomy cavern in
its side, this volcano may still be considered active. Its white
calcined crater is clothed in some places with green shrubs,
particularly with luxuriant sage, myrtle, and white heather; but an
eruption took place in it so late as 1198, during which a lava
current, a rare phenomenon in this district, flowed from its southern
edge to the sea, destroying the ancient cemetery on the Via Puteolana,
and forming the present promontory of Olibano. The ground sounds
hollow beneath a heavy tread, reminding one unpleasantly that but a
thin crust covers the fiery abyss which might break through at any
moment. With the exception of Vesuvius, this is the only surviving
remnant of the fierce elemental forces which have devastated this
coast in every direction. The whole region is one mass of craters of
various sizes and ages, some far older than Vesuvius, and others of
comparatively recent origin. They are all craters of eruption and not
of elevation; and in their formation they have interfered with and in
some cases almost obliterated pre-existing ones. Some of them are
filled with lakes, and others clothed with luxuriant vineyards, and
wild woods fit for the chase, or encircling cultivated fields. To one
looking upon it from a commanding position such as the heights of
Posilipo, the landscape presents a universally blistered appearance.
Hot mineral springs everywhere abound, often associated with the ruins
of old Roman baths; and the soil is a white felspathic ash, disposed
in layers of such fineness and regularity that they look as if they
had been stratified under water, the sea and the shore having
alternately given place to each other. Of the white earth abounding o