CHAPTER XXII.
JOURNEY TO MONTEMURRO.
We passed the Agri again, narrowly escaping the loss of one of the laden mules, owing to the large stones in the bed, the torrent of muddy water taking them above the girths; and commenced a long and toilsome ascent, along the small lateral valley of the Fiume Levada, or Laderana, crossing it several times, from the west to the east bank.
This stream is not named on the maps of Zannoni, or of Bachlet d'Albe, and no two people hardly, seemed to pronounce its name quite alike. Once landed on the left (north) bank of the Agri, we reach a new set of formations. The limestone and breccia here disappear, and are succeeded by thick argillaceous beds, with thin bands of something approaching to clay iron-stone; some beds of calcareous clays, much indurated, and occasionally, heavy beds of a yellow and grey calcareous soft sandstone, all not very far from horizontal, and dipping to the north and N.E. The whole of these are overlaid, by enormous deposits, of dense tenacious clays, red, brown, and yellow, almost without a pebble. These stand, as soft shedding cliffs, above this stream—now a brawling torrent of liquid mud, which is undercutting and sweeping them away, in masses. In many
