578 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ground. Then a period of rest and quiet ensued, and the scene 

 three years later was one of utter desolation, the eye within a 

 radius of two or three miles resting only on vast wastes of vol- 

 canic sand, slag, and ashes, with the rugged wild lava streams 



below. 



Late in the afternoon of a day in the middle of April we left 

 Naples, then cold and raining, with thunder and lightning ; and 

 after a particularly rough and disagreeable night in a steamer 

 without ballast, which bobbed about on the chopping sea like a 

 cork, we landed early in the morning at Palermo. The day was 

 spent in visiting the fine zoological museum, and in wandering 

 through the attractive botanical garden of that beautiful city. 



The traveler who would see Etna to the best advantage should 

 approach it from the west and south as well as the north. Leav- 

 ing Palermo the next morning by an early train we soon reached 

 the junction of Termini. At this point the railroad turns south 

 and runs into the interior ; but before we left the coast we could 

 see, some eighty miles distant, heavy clouds of steam and ashes 

 drifting from the eastward, and we were sure that they arose 

 from the island of Volcano, then in eruption, although inquiries 

 from our fellow-travelers as to whether this were so failed to 

 meet a response ; either they were stupid or our limited Italian 

 vocabulary was at fault. 



It was not until we reached the neighborhood of Castrogio- 

 vanni that we had a good view of the noble cone of Etna, distant 

 some forty miles. From this point of view, almost directly west, 

 the grand mountain mass is seen to rise by a very gradual ascent 

 from the regions below, its upper third snow-clad, its steepest 

 slope toward the south. It has undergone little change since the 

 days of Pindar, who nearly twenty-five hundred years ago sang 

 of " the snowy Etna, the pillar of heaven the nurse of everlast- 

 ing frost, in whose deep caverns lie concealed the fountains of un- 

 ap])roachable fire a stream of eddying smoke by day, a bright 

 and ruddy flame by night ; and burning rocks rolled down with 

 loud uproar into the sea" (First Pythian Odes). It was the IGth 

 of April, and the season was a late one, but the poplars were 

 leaved out and the vines were much more advanced than in 

 Naples. The green fields were crowded with poppies, wild peas, 

 and other spring flowers in profusion, while farther on in our 

 route, in the outskirts of Catania, the almonds and figs were fully 

 formed on the trees, though still green. 



Not stopping at Catania, we took the night steamer for Malta, 

 where we spent a most interesting day, returning by night to 

 Syracuse a memorable trip one should not miss and the morn- 

 ing of the 19th found us at Catania. 



After lunch we drove through the long, straight Strada Etnea 



