isa-normaladvance-1914-00058

Description:	58THE NORMAL ADVANCEHanbmg at Naples HELEN LOUISE GILLUMTHE gray mist of early morning was slow¬ ly lifting as we neared the bay of Naples. Every one had finished packing, and had done the many little things necessarily left until the last few moments before landing, and now was either walking up and down the decks to while away the time, or leaning against the railing for a farewell chat with some shipboard friend.Suddenly from far forward came the cry, Land ahead! It went from.lip to lip down the decks, and, like an electric current, awoke the whole ship to action. There was an imme¬ diate rush forward, and those who were slow, and could not find a place forward, hung far out over the railings at the side, in their eager¬ ness to get a glimpse of land. Every one was interested, for those of us to whom it was a new experience, were full of curiosity, while the few who had visited Naples before, were eager to recognize the familiar scenes.Lown down on the horizon lay a faint, bluish- gray speck, so far away that it was almost in¬ visible. We watched it breathlessly, afraid that our eagerness had conjured up the vision, which would tantalize us for awhile and then slip away. But slowly, almost imperceptibly, it grew larger, and at last the faint outline of a rugged sky-line could be detected. Presently, as the ship changed it scourse slightly, the speck of land became an island, which we recognized as Capri, lying near and as if guard¬ ing the narrow arm of land extending out to¬ ward it, from the mainland. Steep, rocky cliffs, dropping in sheer precipices to the water hundreds of feet below their summits, valiantly resisted the unceasing blows of the waves, whichdashed themselves into foaming spray against the rocks.To the north of Capri, across a broad ex¬ panse of glistening water, Ischia, rising ab¬ ruptly out of the sea, and rivaling Capri in wild beauty, challenged our attention. The wooded slopes of Monte Epomeo, glowing in the rosy morning light, towered above, and dominated the whole island, giving no sign of the seething caldron of molten rock and gas, which rumbled and groaned in its depths, oc¬ casionally shaking the island with ruthless fury but the white ruins of Casamicciola, near its base, gave mute evidence, of its treacherous force.As the ship passed between Capri and Ischia, the sentinels which guard it, the bay lay spread out before us, bathed in the morn¬ ing sunshine, the clear water reflecting t*he matchless blue of the almost cloudless sky. On either side, the mainland stretched out long arms toward the islands, as if trying to shut in the bit of jeweled water, and to keep out the rough waves of the open sea. Slowly my eyes traveled along the mainland from Capri, hesitating a moment as they reached Sorrento, with its sunny villas nestling high above the water, on the white cliffs. A faint ribbon of road led on around the bay toward Naples, now clinging to the side of almost perpendicular cliffs, now leading over some huge piece of masonry which bridged a deep chasm, and sometimes winding past gentle slopes, covered with vineyards, and blossoming orange groves. As it neared the curve where the arm of land joined the mainland, the cliffs disappeared, giving place to olive-colored slopes, which in turn gradually merged into a long stretch of
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/32502
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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