After having for two hours indulged my eyes with a view of the interior of the crater, that is, in the contemplation of a spectacle which, in its kind, and in the present age, is without a parallel in the world; I turned them to another scene, which is likewise unequalled for the multiplicity, the beauty and the variety of objects it presents. In fact, there is perhaps no elevated region on the whole globe which offers, at one view, so ample an extent of sea and land as the summit of Etna. The first of the sublime objects which it presents is the immense mass of its own colossal body. When in the country below it, near Catania, we raise our eyes to this sovereign of the mountains, we certainly survey it with admiration, as it rises majestically, and lifts its lofty head above the clouds; and with a kind of geometric glance we estimate its height from the base to the summit; but we only see it in profile. Very different is the appearance it presents, viewed from its towering top, when the whole of its enormous bulk is subjected to the eye. The first part, and that nearest the observer, is the Upper Region, which, from the quantity of snows and ice beneath which it is buried during the greater part of the year, may be called the frigid zone, but which, at that time, was divested of this covering, and only exhibited rough aud craggy cliffs, here piled on each other, and there separate and rising perpendicularly; fearful to view and impossible to ascend. Towards the middle of this zone, an assemblage of fugitive clouds, irradiated by the sun, and all in motion, increased the wild variety of the scene. Lower down, appeared the Middle Region, which from the mildness of its climate, may merit the name of the temperate zone. Its numerous woods, interrupted in various places, seem, like a torn garment, to discover the nudity of the mountain. Here arise a multitude of other mountains, which in any other situation would appear of gigantic size, but are but pigmies compared to Etna. These have all originated from fiery eruptions, Lastly, the eye contemplates, with admiration, the Lower Region, which, from its violent heat, may claim the appellation of the torrid zone; the most extensive of the three, adorned with elegant villas and castles, verdant hills, and flowery fields, and terminated by the extensive coast, where, to the south, stands the beautiful city of Catania, to which the waves of the neighbouring sea serve as a mirror. But not only do we discover, from this astonishing elevation, the entire massy body of Mount Etna; but the whole of the island of Sicily, with all its noble cities, lofty hills, extensive plaius, and meandering rivers. In the indistinct distance we perceive Malta; but have a clear view of the environs of Messina, and the greater part of Calabria; while Lipari, the fuming Vulcano, the blazing Stromboli, and the other Eolian isles, appear immediately under our feet, and seem as if, on stooping down, we might touch them with the finger. Another object no less superb and majestic, was the far-stretching surface of the subjacent sea which surrounded me, and led my eye to an immense distance, till it seemed gradually to mingle with the heavens. Seated in the midst of this theatre of the wonders of nature, I felt an indescribable pleasure from the multiplicity and beauty of the objects I surveyed, and a kind of internal satisfaction and exultation of heart. The sun was advancing to the meridian, unobscured by the smallest cloud, and Reaumur's thermometer stood in the tenth degree from the freezing point. I was therefore in that temperature which is most friendly to man; and the refined air I breathed, as if it had been entirely vital, communicated a vigour and agility to my limbs, and an activity and life to my ideas, which appeared to be of a celestial nature. [Spalanzani's Travels.] CHAP. XI. VOLCANOES OF THE LIPARI ISLANDS. To the northward of Sicily lies a cluster of small islands, almost all of which contain volcanoes, that of Stromboli being the chief. The crater of this last is peculiarly characterised by its frequent momentary eruptions of stones, which, in consequence of its being confined on the side of a hill, are thrown back by a recoil, and relapsing into the volcano supply it afresh with endless materials. The island of this group, which is named Vulcano, has a larger crater, but its materials seen exhausted, The isle of Lipari, containing the town of the same name, presents vast rocks of volcanic glass; and it is from the hill called Campo Bianco, three miles from the town of Lipari, that Europe is chiefly supplied with pumice-stones for different purposes. Felicuda and Alicuda, the two extreme Liparian islands towards the west, display equal proofs of their having formerly contained volcanoes; and modern authors have discovered similar traces in the isle of Ischia, and in those of Penza to the north of the gulph of Naples; while that of Capri, to the south of the Neapolitan gulph, is supposed to be chiefly calcareous. The best account we have received of the volcanic phenomenon of Stromboli is that of Spalanzani, from whom we shall take leave to present our readers with the few following detached extracts. I SHALL now proceed to relate what I observed relative to the volcano on the night of the 1st of October. My residence was in a cottage, on the north side of the island, about half a mile from the sea, and two miles from the volcano; but so situated that the cloud of smoke round the mountain scarcely permitted me to see the top of the fiery ejections. I employed more hours of the night in making my observations, than I permitted myself for repose; and the following is a brief summary of the principal appearances I noticed. The south-east wind blew strong. The sky, which was clear, the moon not shining, exhibited the appearance of a beautiful aurora borealis over that part of the mountain where the volcano is situated, and which, from time to time, became more red and brilliant, when the ignited stones were thrown to a greater height from the top of the mountain. The fiery showers were then more copious, and the explosions which followed them louder, the strongest resembling those of a large mine which does not succeed properly, from some cleft or vent. Every explosion, however, slightly shook the house in which I was, and the degree of the shock was proportionate to the loudness of the sound. I do not believe that these shocks were of the nature of the earthquake; they were certainly to be ascribed to the sudden action of the fiery ejections on the air, which struck the small house in which I was, in the same manuer as the discharge of a cannon will shake the windows of the neighbouring houses, and sometimes the houses themselves. A proof of this is, that the |