papyrus rolls, has also been discovered, which has excited the
greatest curiosity of the learned, in the hope of regaining some of the
lost works of ancient writers; but though some valuable literary remains
of Grecian and Roman antiquity have been more or less completely
restored, the greater part remain yet untouched, no effectual means
having been discovered by which the manuscripts could be unrolled and
deciphered, owing to their charred and decomposed state.

The following vivid sketch of the present appearance of these devoted
cities, is from the pen of an American traveler:--

"In the grounds of the Royal Palace at Portici, which are extensive,
there is a small fortress, with its angles, its bastions,
counter-scarps, and all the geometrical technicalities of Vauban, in
miniature. It was erected by Charles III., for the instruction, or
perhaps more correctly speaking, the amusement of his sons. The garden
on the front of the palace next to the bay, is enchanting. Here, amidst
statues, refreshing fountains, and the most luxurious foliage, the vine,
the orange, the fig, in short, surrounded by all the poetry of life, one
may while 'the sultry hours away,' till the senses, yielding to the
voluptuous charm, unfit one for the sober realities of a busy world.

"The towns of Portici and Resinia, which are in fact united, are very
populous. The shops, at the season of my visit, Christmas, particularly
those where eatables were sold, exhibited a very gay appearance; and
gilt hams, gilt cheese, festoons of gilt sausages, intermixed with
evergreens, and fringes of maccaroni, illuminated Virgin Marys, and
gingerbread Holy Families, divided the attention of the stranger, with
the motley crowds in all the gay variety of Neapolitan costume. At the
depth of seventy or eighty feet beneath these crowded haunts of busy
men, lies buried, in a solid mass of hard volcanic matter, the once
splendid city of Herculaneum, which was overthrown in the first century
of the Christian era, by a terrible eruption of Vesuvius. It was
discovered about the commencement of the last century, by the digging of
a well immediately over the theatre. For many years the excavations were
carried on with spirit; and the forum, theatres, porticos, and splendid
mansions, were successively exposed, and a great number of the finest
bronzes, marble statues, busts, &c., which now delight the visitor to
the Museum at Naples, were among the fruits of these labors.