The aspect of this side of Sicily is
infinitely more active and the country is cultivated as well as most
parts of Italy."
He and his party started on the 30th of October, and found the path
nearly uniform from Catania, but the country bore a volcanic aspect at
every step. At Nicolosi their rest was disturbed by the distant booming
of the mountain. From this point to the Bosco the scenery is described
as a dreary region, but the tract of the wood showed some beautiful
places resembling an English park, with old oaks and abundant fern.
"Here we found flocks browsing; they are much exposed to sheep-stealers,
who do not touch travelers, calculating with justice that men do not
carry much money to the summit of Etna." The party passed the Casa degli
Inglesi, which registered a temperature of 31 deg., and then continued the
ascent on foot for the crater. A magnificent view of sunrise was
here obtained.
"Just before we reached the lip of the crater the guide exultingly
pointed out what he declared to be ordinarily the greatest sight of the
mountain, namely, the shadow of the cone of Etna, drawn with the utmost
delicacy by the newly-risen sun, but of gigantic extent; its point at
this moment rested on the mountains of Palermo, probably one hundred
miles off, and the entire figure was visible, the atmosphere over the
mountains having become and continuing perfectly and beautifully
transparent, although in the hundreds of valleys which were beneath us,
from the east to the west of Sicily, and from the mountains of Messina
down to Cape Passaro, there were still abundant vapors waiting for a
higher sun to disperse them; but we enjoyed in its perfection this view
of the earliest and finest work of the greater light of heaven, in the
passage of his beams over this portion of the earth's surface.
Pages:
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149