52

THE A LTISE REUIUSE.

though some complain that its comparative narrowness givesit more the character of a river, this combination of wildnessand luxuriance causes it to he generally considered the mostbeautiful of the Italian lakes. Sudden thunderstorms andsqualls are not uncommon, and are at times rather dangerousto small boats. In settled weather there are periodic winds;the brevet from the south, which, setting in a little beforenoon, often blows with considerable force during the hotterpart of the afternoon and subsides in the evening; and thetirano from the north, which blows softly during the night andearly morning. The shores of the Lecco arm are compara-tively desolate, the mountains here rising precipitously fromthe water, but the rest are thickly peopled by a busy and in-dustrious race.

Nearly 30 miles further to the east, among sloping hillswhich occasionally rise to a height of five or six thousand feetabove the water, is the rarely visited Lago d’ Iseo, occupyinga sinuous valley that forms the channel of the river Oglio .It is 027 feet above the sea, and al»out 700 feet deep. Itslength is about 17 miles and its general breadth about 2 miles;except in the middle, where the distance of the opposite shoreis greater, but the surface here is broken by a large rockyisland.

The last and easternmost of the Italian lakes is the Lago di Garda , the Lacus Benacus of the Romans, which occupiesa valley parallel to the great trench of the Adige , and isseparated from it by the ridge of Monte Baldo . The Mincio,draining the eastern face of the Adamello , enters the lake at thenorthern end and quits it at the southern, near the fortress ofPeschiera ; so well known of late years as one of the angles of theAustrian quadrilateral. Its length is about 48 miles ; the upperpart occupies a straight and regular trench, about two milesacross, enclosed by bold mountains; the lower widens out into anumber of rounded bays among the gentle slopes that fringe