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Notwithstanding unfavourable weather, the "red flames" were perceived with little less clearness and no less amazement from the Superga than at Pavia, and were even discerned by Mr. Airy with the naked eye. The height of these extraordinary objects was estimated by Arago at two minutes of arc, representing, at the sun's distance, an actual elevation of 54,000 miles.
From thence there is probably a much more extended view from west to east, but the Alps would be seen from above to my mind a far less majestic and imposing sight; moreover, it occupies some three or four hours to climb the Superga, whilst the observatory of the Capuchins is but half an hour's walk.
I took my way through the noble street that leads southwards, halting at the book-stalls, and picking out of their heaps of rubbish an Italian copy of the Catechism of Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux. The Collina was all in a blaze; the windows of the Palazzo Regina glittered in the setting beams; and the dome of the Superga shone like gold.
Charles Albert was now a denizen of the Superga of all kings' burial places, the most inspiring in its history, the most sublime in its situation. Here Victor Amadeus, as he looked down on the great French army which, for three months, had besieged his capital, vowed to erect a temple if it should please the Lord of Hosts to grant him and his people deliverance from the hands of the enemy.
Those found in the hill called the Superga, near Turin, have long been known to correspond in age with the faluns of Touraine, and they contain so many species common to the Upper Miocene strata of Bordeaux as to lead to the conclusion that there was a free communication between the northern part of the Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay in the Upper Miocene period.
But when you have seen the Superga from the quay beside the Po, a skein of a few yellow threads in August, despite its frequent habit of rising high and running wild, and said to yourself that in architecture position is half the battle, you have nothing left to visit but the Museum of pictures.
This fancy occurred to me as I climbed the slope of the Superga, gazing over acacia hedges and poplars to the mountains bare in morning light. The occasional occurrence of bars across this chord poplars shivering in sun and breeze, stationary cypresses as black as night, and tall campanili with the hot red shafts of glowing brick adds just enough of composition to the landscape.
The strata, for example, of the Superga, near Turin, are Miocene; those of Asti and Parma Older Pliocene, as is the blue marl of Sienna; while the shells of the incumbent yellow sand of the same territory approach more nearly to the recent fauna of the Mediterranean, and may be Newer Pliocene.
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