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CHAPTER I.

That branch of the Lake of Como, which turns toward the south

between two unbroken chains of mountains, presenting to the eye a

succession of bays and gulfs, formed by their jutting and

retiring ridges, suddenly contracts itself between a headland to

the right and an extended sloping bank on the left, and assumes

the flow and appearance of a river. The bridge by which the two

shores are here united, appears to render the transformation more

apparent, and marks the point at which the lake ceases, and the

Adda recommences, to resume, however, the name of Lake where the

again receding banks allow the water to expand itself anew into

bays and gulfs. The bank, formed by the deposit of three large

mountain streams, descends from the bases of two contiguous

mountains, the one called St.