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LAGO MAGGIORE AND THE TOWN OP BAVENO.
LAGO MAGGIORE , one of the largest of the lakes that em-bellish the foot of the high Alps on the Italian side, is aboutfifteen leagues in length from north to south; its greatest breadthis two leagues and a half and its average breadth about half aleague. Its surface is 636 feet above the level of the sea. Inthe middle of its western shore it forms a deep gulf, at the entranceof which are situated the Borromean islands. At the bottom ofthis gulf it receives the Toccia, which descends from the Simplonand the valley of Antigorio; and at its northern extremity nearLocarno ^ the Tessino , which collects the waters of the St. Gothard ,issues from the lake at Sesto, towards the south, and dischargesitself into the Po near Pavia. The new road runs along the shoreof the lake from Feriolo to Sesto; a space of about eight leagues.
The view of La<ro Ma^ffiore excites the admiration of the loverof the arts and of the beauties of Nature ; but this admiration isheightened, when on quitting the deep valley of the Rhone andthe pass of the Simplon, he finds himself on its banks and visits itscharming islands. The lofty mountains which human industryhas but partially brought into cultivation, the gloomy pine forestsinterspersed with verdant pastures, the wooden hu s roofed withthatch, the churches of simple construction which he has seen inthe Valais , are still present to his imagination ; he recollects thesterile plain of the Simplon where the want of vegetation bespeaksthe severity of the climate, the everlasting glaeiers the summitsof which are enveloped in clouds, the pointed rocks of the sombrevalley of Gondo, the numerous streams falling in cascades froma prodigious height and uniting at the bottom of an abyss intowhich they tumble with a thundering roar, and all the wild scenes