There were considerable sections where the forest had entirely disappeared.

The extended fields, inviting the plough, waved with luxuriant grass.

It was truly a delightful region.

The climate was salubrious; the atmosphere in cloudless transparency rivalled the famed skies of Italy.
Where the gloomy prison of the Tombs now stands, there was a lake of crystal water, overhung by towering trees.

Its silence and solitude were disturbed only by the cry of the water-fowl which disported upon its surface, while its depths sparkled with the spotted trout.