CHAPTER IV.

Journey towards Catania-Ancient Monument opposite Thapsus—Arrival at Catania-Description of that City-Expedition to the Rocks of the Cyclopes-Ascent up Mount Etna-Description of the Mountain with its various Phenomena-Journey to Giardini-Ascent to TaorminaMagnificence of its Site-Immense Theatre-Prospect of Etna, and the Faro Straits-Cape Alessio-Messina-Sirocco Wind-Journey to Palermo-Festival of Santa Rosolia-College of Jesuits—Piazzi the Astronomer Journey through the Interior of Sicily to Messina-Description of that City-Superstition of its Inhabitants-Festival of the Bara-Madonna della Lettera-Copy of the Letter written by the Virgin Mary to the People of Messina-Straits of the Faro-Scylla and Charybdis-Fortifications at the Faro Point-The Pantani, or Lakes of the Faro-Site of the Neptunium-Heights of Curcuracci-Return to Messina-Illumination of the Calabrian Coast-Splendid Scene in the Harbour of Messina-Fishery-Harpooning of the Pesce-spadaIncreasing Commerce-Variety of Costume-Albanian or Greek Rogiment—Ancient Sarcophagus-Sail for Zante-Violent Storm-Arri

val at Zante.

AT the distance of about five miles, opposite the peninsula of Thapsus, now called Magnisi, we observed on the left hand side of the road a square pedestal of great size, on which are a few layers of an immense circular column. It is called by the natives La Guglia, and is said, upon the authority of Fazzello and Mirabella, to be the remains of a trophy erected by Marcellus for his conquest of Syracuse. It certainly stands upon or near the ground where the Roman army was encamped during the siege, and that has, perhaps, led these historians

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to ascribe it to the Roman conqueror, without the least authority from historical records. Long before the shades of night descended we arrived at Augusta; and the next day brought us to Catania, the finest city in Sicily, and for its size, perhaps in Europe. It is nobly situated on the roots of Etna, its despoiler and its benefactor-overwhelmed as it has often been by torrents of liquid fire, it has risen like the Phoenix more splendid from its ashes. The very substance which once ravaged its plains, has by its own decomposition covered them with soil fertile as the fabled garden of the Hesperides, and on all sides the material of destruction is turned to the purposes of ornament and utility: the streets are paved with lava-houses, palaces, and churches are built of lava-of lava they form ornamental chimney pieces, tables, and a variety of toys-whilst a natural mole of lava defends the shipping from the fury of the tempest. Ask a Catanian what is the substance of almost any thing you behold in art or nature, and his reply will be, with a most significant elevation of his hands and eyebrows, "Lava, Signore; tutta tutta Lava." The plan of this city is very superb, and no one is permitted to deviate from it in building it contains three streets, each a mile, more or less, in length the longest and most splendid of these terminated at one end by the Cathedral, forms at the other a noble vista which directs the eye up a gradual and majestic ascent to the smoking summit of Mount Etna: no capital in Europe that I have seen, probably none in the world, contains so sublime a prospect. Near the Cathedral is a fine piazza or square, adorned with an antique statue of an elephant. Tradition says, that this square formed in very early ages the temenos of a temple dedicated to the Dea Ognia, the daughter of Cham, and afterwards to Pallas, whose armed effigy was seated upon an elephant, in memory of a great victory gained over the Carthaginians, who attacked the walls of the town from towers placed upon the backs of those stupendous animals, in the reign of Cocalus, King of the Sicani. Catania has been long celebrated as the best university in Sicily: literature, indeed, seems to have flourished here in early times; for Marcellus

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founded a celebrated gymnasium within its walls after his Syracusan victory, and it was from Catania that M. Val. Messala brought a knowledge of the Sun-dial to Rome, in the first Punic War. This city is noted also for its numerous charitable foundations, and the humane disposition of its inhabitants: amongst the present race, the Duca di Carcaci and the Principe di Gisiro deserve particular approbation, each of whom is supposed to give away at least a third of his income in acts of charity; the annual revenue of the latter being estimated at 12,000 dollars, and that of the former, who has founded an hospital, at 30,000. The Museum of the Prince of Biscari, which with great liberality is thrown open to the public, possesses strong attractions: amongst other treasures it contains one of the finest collections of bronze statues in the world. Its agreeable society, in which Catania excels the rest of the island, the inspection of its extensive silk manufactories *, its superb edifices, and its ancient curiosities buried underneath the modern city, above all, the agreeable incident of meeting with a valued friend on his return home from the borders of Euphrates †, detained us more than a week in this delightful place. One day we made an excursion over the ancient port of Ulysses, which has long been filled up by an inundation of lava, to the celebrated "Scogli di Ciclopi," or rocks of the Cyclopes, an appellation which they have retained since the days of Pliny. Having passed over the worst roads in the island, we arrived in about two hours at the Castello di Aci: there we took a boat, and proceeded over the calm surface of the most transparent sea I ever beheld, to the rocks which appeared about half a mile distant from the shore. They are seven in number, lying nearly in a strait line from north to south. Three of them rise to the height of near a hundred feet from the water in a pyramidal shape, three

Silk worms were brought by Roger the first about the year 1130 from Athens into Sicily, whence their culture passed into Italy. They were introduced from India into Constantinople under the reign of Justinian. + John Fiott Lee, Esq. of Colworth House, Bedfordshire.

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ROCKS OF THE CYCLOPES.

others are small in size and irregular in form, but the largest is longer and flatter than the rest, and is situated at the northern extremity of the range. Upon this we landed and discovered a cavern, a reservoir of fresh water, and the ruins of an ancient building. The bases of these rocks are composed of large hexagonal basaltic columns, like those of the Giant's Causeway: they are not perpendicular, but run in an oblique or curvilinear direction: they appeared particularly fine and perfect in the loftiest peaked rock which lay on our right hand: the upper stratum of that on which we stood is composed of a brown porous stone, very similar in appearance to lava, and full of imbedded crystals of the most beautiful transparency. I broke off a large specimen of this substance, which is now in the possession of my excellent friend Dr. Clarke, to whose kindness I am indebted for the following scientific analysis, which seems at variance with the opinions of the Sicilian philosophers, who one and all pronounce the substance to be lava, and would fain throw the heretic down the crater of Mount Etna who should presume to doubt that these rocks are the children of his

creation.

"We see here exhibited the varieties of a mineral, once called Cubic Zeolite, and since, by Haüy, Analcime, in greater beauty than perhaps can be elsewhere met with. This substance, glittering with a degree of splendour almost equal to the diamond, appears imbedded in a dark brown porous stone, which is commonly called lava, but which some mineralogists consider as the Saxum Trapezium of Linnæus, and Trap of the Swedes and Germans. The crystals of Analcime contained in the cellular cavities of this porous stone, are as diaphanous as rock crystal; they are of two kinds; the primitive or cubic crystals, and a beautiful variety exhibiting a secondary form in which each solid angle of the primitive cube has been replaced by three planes, thereby adding twenty-four to the six planes of the primitive figure. Both these varieties of analcime are equally transparent. The matrix, or rock, in which they are imbedded, has undergone a certain partial

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decomposition externally: when submitted to the action of the common blow-pipe, a slight degree of heat is sufficient to fuse it into a jet black shining glass. It is therefore difficult to conceive, that it has already been exposed to any very exalted degree of temperature, or has previously sustained the igneous fusion." In company with our friend Mr. Lee, we commenced on the 27th of June an expedition to the summit of Mount Etna; one party only had been before us, but the road was declared free from snow, and practicable. We proceeded the first day about nine miles up the mountain to the pretty village of Mascalucia, in the midst of what is called the 'cultivated' or 'fertile region' of this region we saw more in our descent when we passed through the beautiful village of Tre Castagne, on our road to Taormina. No language can do justice to the scenery, fertility and luxuriant verdure of this tract, whose bosom heated by subterranean fires, and situated in the most favourable climate upon earth, teems with every flower and plant and tree that can delight the eye, and every species of fruit that can gratify the palate: fields covered with golden grain or the purple vine, villages and convents embosomed in thick groves of chesnuts and oriental planes, mossy fountains and transparent streams, exhausted craters covered with a verdant canopy of foliage, and numberless other beauties invite the tourist to these charming scenes; scenes that derive a double interest from their classical celebrity, from the loves of Acis and Galatea, and the adventures of the wandering Ulysses: here also the sportsman will meet with every species of game that he can desire, and the botanist or mineralogist find inexhaustible sources of amusement. The population of this luxuriant district, in towns and villages, is estimated at 300,000, one fourth of all the inhabitants of Sicily *!

* In a census taken rather more than a century ago, the inhabitants of this island amounted to 1,133,163, including 40,000 ecclesiastics, and 110,000 inhabitants of Palermo. During a period when most other nations of Europe have made such advances in population, Sicily with greater natural advantages than them all has continued nearly stationary.