600 THE UNIVERSE. 







After long journeys in the snow, the traveller, subdued 

 by cold and lassitude, experiences an insurmountable de- 

 sire to sleep, and yet dare not, for all the world contains, 

 yield himself up to it ; for this sleep conducts him to inevi- 

 table death, a fact known to all travellers. 



On the frozen shores of Tierra del Fuego, Solander, lost 

 in the mountains, said imperiously to his companions in mis- 

 fortune, " Whoever sits down will sleep, and he who sleeps 

 will never wake again." Yet so overpowering, so uncon- 

 querable, is this tendency to sleep, that several of the men 

 yielded to it, and Solander himself, a few moments after- 

 wards, sank down upon the snow, where his friend, the illus- 

 trious Sir Joseph Banks, had all the difficulty in the world 

 to arouse him. 



But when we have arrived at the summit of a moun- 

 tain, the splendor of the sight makes one quite forget the 

 fatigue of the ascent. This I experienced lately, on climb- 

 ing Mount Etna, when I had reached the borders of the 

 crater. 



There, upon this throne, round which the lightning plays, 

 we overlook heaven and ocean. Behind us the growlings 

 of the thunder reverberate at the bottom of the immense 

 gulf, according to ancient theogony the entrance to the em- 

 pire of Pluto, but which the rustic mountaineer only knows 

 as the Casa di Diavolo. Standing on cinders which burned 

 my feet, and the sulphureous vapors of which almost suffo- 

 cated me, the most splendid spectacle in creation expanded 

 itself before my eyes. The dawn began to appear, and its 

 pale light gradually extinguished the wavering glimmer of 

 the stars. Then, soon after, the sun appearing in all the 



