DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62267#0072
62
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. II.
alpine Republic. The change was not very
popular, as rtflay be imagined; however sub-
mission was unavoidable, till, impoverished by
taxes, and teased by swarms of blood-suckers
under the titles of prefects, mayors, commissioners,
&c. the inhabitants yielded to the impulse of
courage, threw off the yoke, and expelled the
Cisalpine officers. It was in actual rebellion
when we passed, and it had our cordial but un-
availing wishes. In front of the town we sailed
under a lofty mountain covered with wood, and
projecting into the lake. Its interior is hollowed
into a variety of caverns (called by the people
cantini) remarkable for coolness and dryness.
Here the citizens of Lugano store their wine and
corn, and in the summer months they keep their
meat here, which, even in the most sultry wea-
ther, remains untainted for a considerable time.
The bay of Lugano lies nearer the southern
than the northern extremity of the lake, which,
a few miles beyond it, again expands and forms
three other branches. One of the branches,
bending northward, is of considerable extent,
and discharges itself by the river Tresa into the
Lago Maggiore. In turning from Lugano, the
depth of the lake is, where narrowest, consider-
ably diminished, a circumstance ascribed to the
fall of a vast promontory. The same effect is
CLASSICAL TOUR
Ch. II.
alpine Republic. The change was not very
popular, as rtflay be imagined; however sub-
mission was unavoidable, till, impoverished by
taxes, and teased by swarms of blood-suckers
under the titles of prefects, mayors, commissioners,
&c. the inhabitants yielded to the impulse of
courage, threw off the yoke, and expelled the
Cisalpine officers. It was in actual rebellion
when we passed, and it had our cordial but un-
availing wishes. In front of the town we sailed
under a lofty mountain covered with wood, and
projecting into the lake. Its interior is hollowed
into a variety of caverns (called by the people
cantini) remarkable for coolness and dryness.
Here the citizens of Lugano store their wine and
corn, and in the summer months they keep their
meat here, which, even in the most sultry wea-
ther, remains untainted for a considerable time.
The bay of Lugano lies nearer the southern
than the northern extremity of the lake, which,
a few miles beyond it, again expands and forms
three other branches. One of the branches,
bending northward, is of considerable extent,
and discharges itself by the river Tresa into the
Lago Maggiore. In turning from Lugano, the
depth of the lake is, where narrowest, consider-
ably diminished, a circumstance ascribed to the
fall of a vast promontory. The same effect is