Malta, which is supplied hence with these necessaries in exchange for cloth, spirits, hardware, and colonial produce." The river Salso, anciently called the southern Himera, which falls into the sea near Alicata, on the south coast, is rendered brackish by the junction of a stream which runs from salt mines near Caltanisetta. There are also various salt-springs in Sicily, a group of which are represented in our engraving. Houel terms them les salinelles.

The two chief places on the western end of Sicily are Marsala, well-known for its wine; and Trapani, equally well-known for its manufacture of salt. A large portion of the country adjoining Trapani " is laid out in extensive salt-works, by the construction of innumerable causeways, about a foot and a half high, enclosing square places, which communicate by dams with each other. Into these the sea-water is conducted by regular gradations, and exposed in a state of stagnation to the influence of the sun; as the evaporation advances, the bittern is successively scooped into the further divisions, in the most distant of which the crystallization takes place, and a new supply of the nearest water is from time to time admitted, until the crust has increased to a certain thickness. The salt is then heaped up in pyramids ready for exportation, without any precaution to preserve them against rain, except their form, and the hardness they acquire by time." The heaps of salt at a distance resemble the tents of an encampment.

Twelve leagues west of Palermo, at some distance from the sea, in a barren and truly desolate country, the traveller will observe, at the base of a narrow gorge, numerous blocks of stone, where he can still discern traces of human art, but which give no intimation as to what might have been their former destination. One ruin, however, is sufficiently perfect to authorize the opinion, that it belonged to the theatre. These ruins which are now vaguely termed Barbara, are all that remain of one of the most powerful cities of Sicily. Founded by the companions of Æneas, and perpetuating the memory of its Trojan origin by the names of Scamander and Simois, given to the two rivers which bathe it with their waters, Segesta, sometimes

termed Ægesta, in the early periods of the Roman era, rivalled even Syracuse in grandeur. About three hundred years before the Christian era, Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, to punish Segesta for taking part with the Carthaginians against him, destroyed it: the walls were overthrown, the inhabitants were massacred, and to perpetuate the memory of this horrid event, the term, "CITY OF VENGEANCE," was applied to the ruins. The Segestians, however, had so many resources, that they soon effaced all traces of this calamity; a new city sprung up, and resumed its rank among the capitals of Italy.

After many centuries of prosperity, the Segestians were committed to the fire and sword by the Saracens, and this time, the injury was irreparable, for Italy was now exhausted. But by a singular contrast, near these ruins, rises the most imposing, the most ancient, and the best preserved monument of Sicily.

On approaching the ruins of Segesta from the sea, the eye is fatigued by the barren rocks, and the absence of all picturesque beauty in the landscape. We look in vain for any traces of a habitation, when suddenly on the summit of a far-distant hill, a majestic colonnade is observed. This building stands above Segesta, on a promontory; its form is that of a regular parallelogram, one hundred and seventy-five feet long by seventy-three feet broad; it is composed of thirty-six columns, twelve of which are placed on each of the two longest faces, and six on each of the extremities. These columns are of the Doric order and gradually diminish toward the top; they are twenty-eight feet high, and six feet in diameter; they support an entablature about eight feet high; which is ornamented by a very prominent cornice. At the two extremities, the monument presents a front, the angles of which are very obtuse, and there is no reason to think that the space existing between the columns was ever closed, or that there was ever any interior within the colonnade: places for the cornices of the roof, however, still exist, but of this, as well as of the pavement, there are now no traces. The material, used in the construction of this building, is common limestone, which is encrusted with shells: but its tint is a bright yellow, and it is interspersed with veins, so that when seen from a distance, the columns appear to be formed of marble. Its state of preservation is extraordinary; the sharp edges of the stones are yet firm.

At the end of the last century, the lovers of antiquity were fearful lest the symptoms of decay then presented by this building, should rob them of this magnificent monument of architecture; but happily, remedies were applied in time, and this noble specimen of art was preserved without being disfigured by modern repairs.

More perfect than most of the other monuments of Sicily, the beautiful ruin of Segesta seems to be of a more recent date; but it is more ancient than any others. When we compare it with other ruins, we find that the architecture of it is different from all of them; it belongs neither to the Greek nor Roman school; and hence, we must look for its origin to the earliest periods, and believe that this noble edifice was built by the descendants of the companions of Æneas, and that it is therefore three thousand years old. It was doubtless a religious edifice, but whether consecrated to Venus, Ceres, or Diana, it is impossible to say; and the monument is therefore simply termed the "Temple of Segesta."

AGRIGENTUM was much renowned among the ancients. Different stories are told of its foundation; among which is the fabulous tale that Dædalus, who fled to Sicily from the resentment of Minos, erected it. Its situation was peculiarly strong and imposing, standing as it did on a bare and precipitous rock, eleven hundred feet above the level of the sea. To this military advantage, the city added those of a commercial nature, being near to the sea, which afforded the means of an easy intercourse with the ports of Africa and the south of Europe. The soil of Agrigentum was very fertile. By means of these advantages, the wealth of Agrigentum became very great. It was therefore considered the second city in Sicily, and Polybius says that it surpassed in grandeur of appearance, on account of its many temples and splendid public buildings, most of its contemporaries. Among the most magnificent of these buildings were the temples of Minerva, of Jupiter Atabyris, of Hercules, and of Jupiter Olympus; the latter, which vied in size and grandeur of design with the finest buildings of Greece, is said by Diodorus to have been three hundred and forty feet long, sixty broad, and one hundred and twenty high, the foundation not being included, which was itself remarkable for the immense arches upon which it stood. The temple was ornamented with admirable sculpture. But a war prevented the completion of it, when the roof only remained unfinished. Near the city was an ar

tificial lake, cut out of the solid rock, about a mile in circuit, and thirty feet deep, from which fish were obtained in abundance for the public feasts. Swans and other water-fowl frequented it. Afterward, the mud having been suffered to accumulate in this basin, it was turned into a remarkably fruitful vineyard. Both the temple of Jupiter Olympus and the lake were the work of a number of Carthaginian captives. The people of Agrigentum were noted for their luxurious and extravagant habits. Their horses were also famous. After the expulsion of the Carthaginians from Sicily, it fell, with little resistance, under the power of the Romans. Diodorus states the population, in its best days, to have been not less than one hundred and twenty thousand. Our engraving on the preceding page represents the temple of Concord, one of the most perfect ruins now existing on the site of the ancient Agrigentum.

SELINUNTE. On the southern coast of Sicily, about ten miles to the east of Cape Granitola, and between the little rivers Maduini and Bilici (the Crimisus and Hypsa of ancient times), a stupendous mass of ruins presents itself in the midst of a solitary and desolate country. These are the sad remains of the once splendid city of Selinus, or Selinuntum, which was founded by a Greek colony from Megara, more than twenty-four hundred years ago. When seen at a distance from the sea, they still look like a mighty city; but on a near approach nothing is seen but a confused heap of fallen edifices-a mixture of broken shafts, capitals, entablatures, motopa, with a few truncated columns erect among them. On landing at a sandy flat, which has gradually encroached upon and filled up the ancient haven or port, the traveller presently reaches a spot called by the Sicilians "La Marinella," where are the stupendous ruins represented in our engraving. They seem to consist chiefly of the remains of three temples of the Doric order. One of these temples was naturally devoted by a maritime and trading people to Neptune; a second was dedicated for similar reasons to Castor and Pollux, the friends of navigation and the scourge of pirates; the destination of the third temple is uncertain. A curious popular corrup tion of a classical name has given a very familiar, if not laughable, designation to the place. The god Pollux is called in Italian Polluce; and by an application of his name, derived from the temple, the district was called Terra di Polluce," the Land of Pollux. Out of this the Sicilians have made "Terra di Pulci ;" literally, "The Land of Fleas"-a designation the place always goes by, and which (not to speak profanely) the neighborhood, in common with nearly all Sicily, is well enti tled to. The size of the columns and the masses of stone that lie heaped about them is prodigious: the lower circumference of the columns is thirty-one and a half feet; many of the stone blocks measure twenty-five feet in length, eight in height, and six in thickness. Twelve of the columns have fallen with singular regularity, the disjointed shaft-pieces of each lying in a straight line with the base from which they fell, and having their several capitals at the other end of the line. If architects and antiquaries have not been mistaken in their difficult task of measuring among heaps of ruins that in good part cover and conceal the exterior lines, the largest of the three temples was three hundred and thirty-four feet long and one hundred and fifty-four feet wide. These are prodigious and unusual dimensions for ancient edifices of the kind; that wonder of the old world, the temple of Diana at Ephesus, did not very much exceed these admeasurements. The great Selinuntian temple seems to have had porticoes of four columns in depth and eight in width, with a double row of sixteen columns on the lateral sides of the cella. It is somewhat singular, from having had all the columns of the first row on the east front fluted, while all the rest of the columns were quite plain. One of these fluted columns is erect and tolerably entire, with the exception of its capital; the fluting, moreover, is not in the Doric style, for each flute is separated by a fillet. The material of which this and the other edifices were formed is a species of fine-grained petrifaction, hard, and very sonorous on being struck with the hammer. It was hewn out of quarries near at hand, at a place called Campo Bello, where many masses, only partially separated from the rock, and looking as if the excavation had been suddenly interrupted, are still seen. A flight of ancient steps in tolerable preservation leads from the Marinella to the Acropolis, where the covert-ways, gates, and walls, built of large squared stones, may still be traced all round the hill. A little to the west of the Acropolis is the small pestiferous lake Yhalici, partly choked up with sand. In ancient times this was called Stagnum Gonusa, and it is said the great philosopher Empedocles purified it and made the air around it wholesome, by clearing a mouth toward the sea and con