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at Rionero at 9·45, and having hired fresh pack mules and horses, to ascend to the Monastery of St. Michele, or Monticchio, on the N.W. shoulder of Vulture, proceed to examine the place, accompanied by the Judice, on whom I called.

The Locanda, though fissured, is habitable. It is about at the mean level of the place: at twelve o'clock noon, Naples mean time, barometer stands at 27·94 inches, thermo. 40° Fahr. and the reduced level gives a height above the sea of 1957 feet. This is not very far from the general level of the great plain or basin, to the east and S.E. of Monte Vulture, and shows that it is very far below the level, of the mountain and table-lands to the south and S.E. of Avigliano, consisting of the tertiary clays and the upper limestones.

Rionero is a prosperous-looking town, nearly as large as Potenza, inhabited by a people of Albanian descent, picturesque in dress, and very commonly handsome in person. The ground upon which it actually stands, is very uneven, and consists of all sorts of alternations, of tufa and solid hard lava rock.