Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/171

120 Taberna de Caputo, nothing but a rude and ponderous mule shed, with a single small sleeping-room, in which a man and his wife lodge, and have charge of a supply of flour and wine, maintained here by Government, to prevent starvation in those who may be snowed up, upon these solitary steeps.

The men started off downward, plunging through the snow towards the Vallone of Pierno, to some hamlets said to be there, and in about an hour, groups of wild-looking fellows, with their large hoes, began to pass upwards. At last we had collected, in all about fifty hands, in addition to the muleteers, who got tools from Caputo, and stretching them along the line pointed out by the leader, I found they soon began to make a sensible impression, partly treading down, partly excavating the snow.

As we gained height, the scene was impressively grand; The saddle-backed slope of unbroken snow, up which we toiled, and the rapid pente to the right, were lost in air filled to obscurity, with floating and falling ice particles. To the left, the steep slopes clothed by the noble pine forest of Pierno, lay below us; the black spiral forms and laden boughs of the huge pines, now and then visible for a few moments, and then fog and ice particles, again shutting out all around. After two or three hours we hailed another party of eight or ten of the Guardiani della Strada that we found were at work above us; and about the same time the fall of ice particles ceased. I had now good hopes of a passage, and returned alone to the Caputo, to order up a supply of wine for the men. After three hours and a half more, occupied there in writing up notes, the leader muleteer came down, with the joyful news that the passage was, he thought, practicable. In less than half an hour