[452] {383} I saw the Cascata del Marmore of Terni twice, at different periods--once from the summit of the precipice, and again from the valley below. The lower view is far to be preferred, if the traveller has time for one only; but in any point of view, either from above or below, it is worth all the cascades and torrents of Switzerland put together: the Staubach, Reichenbach, Pisse Vache, fall of Arpenaz, etc., are rills in comparative appearance. Of the fall of Schaffhausen I cannot speak, not yet having seen it. [The Falls of Reichenbach are at Rosenlaui, between Grindelwald and Meiringen; the Salanfe or Pisse-Vache descends into the valley of the Rhone near Martigny; the Nant d'Arpenaz falls into the Arve near Magland, on the road between Cluses and Sallanches.] [453] Of the time, place, and qualities of this kind of iris, the reader will see a short account, in a note to _Manfred_.[§1] The fall looks so much like "the Hell of waters," that Addison thought the descent alluded to by the gulf in which Alecto[§2] plunged into the infernal regions. It is singular enough, that two of the finest cascades in Europe should be artificial--this of the Velino, and the one at Tivoli. The traveller is strongly recommended to trace the Velino, at least as high as the little lake called _Pie' di Lup_. The Reatine territory was the Italian Tempe (Cicer., _Epist. ad Attic._, lib. iv. 15), and the ancient naturalists ["In lacu Velino nullo non die apparere arcus"] (Plin., _Hist. Nat._, lib. ii. cap. lxii.), amongst other beautiful varieties, remarked the daily rainbows of the lake Velinus. A scholar of great name has devoted a treatise to this district alone. See Ald. Manut., _De Reatina Urb Agroque_, ap. Sallengre, _Nov. Thes. Ant. Rom._, 1735, tom. i. p.773, _sq._ [The "Falls of the Anio," which passed over a wall built by Sixtus V., and plunged into the Grotto of Neptune, were greatly diminished in volume after an inundation which took place in 1826. The New Falls were formed in 1834.] [[§1] _Manfred_, act ii. sc. 1, note. This Iris is formed by the rays of the sun on the lower part of the Alpine torrents; it is exactly like a rainbow come down to pay a visit, and so close that you may walk into it: this effect lasts till noon.] [[§2] "This is the gulf through which Virgil's Alecto shoots herself into hell; for the very place, the great reputation of it, the fall of waters, the woods that encompass it, with the smoke and noise that arise from it, are all pointed at in the description ... "'Est locus Italiæ ... ... densis hunc frondibus atrum Urguet utrimque latus nemoris, medioque fragosus Dat sonitum saxis et torto vertice torrens. Hic specus horrendum et sævi spiracula Ditis Monstrantur, ruptoque ingens Acheronte vorago Pestiferas aperit fauces.' _Æneid_, vii. 563-570.